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EUROPEAN CLAIMS 



HISTORY 



OP THE (3 3 t^ 



UNITED STATES. 



FROM 1492 TO 1872. 

BY 

SAMUEL ELIOT: 



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BOSTON: 
BREWER AND TILES TON. 

Franklin Street. 

1874. 



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Entered, according to Act of Congress, In the year 1874, 

By brewer and TILESTON, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washingtons 



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(.11 



Electrotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, 
19 Spring Lane. 



PREFACE 



As I remarked in the preface to the original edition of 
this book, I have endeavored to observe the proper pro- 
portions. The same space is not given to every period or 
to every transaction. On the contrary, events are narrated 
at greater or less length, according to their importance — 
a few days occupying as many pages in some parts of the 
volume as a long series of years in others. By thus making 
inferior matters subordinate, I trust that I have done more 
justice than might be anticipated, from the appearance of 
the book, to the great passages in our history. It is 
nowhere, however, a book of details. I have confined 
myself intentionally to outlines — endeavoring to sketch 
these in such a way as to suggest comprehensive concep- 
tions of the whole, rather than complete views of any 
single part. 

In bringing down the history to the present time, I have 
made a few corrections and omissions in Parts I., II., and 

III., and almost wholly re-written Part IV. 

(iii) 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

OCCUPATION. 

1492-1638. 

CHAPTER I. 

DISCOVERY. 
Traditional — Historical, 3. Fulness of the Time, 4. 

CHAPTER II. 

SPANISH SETTLEMENTS. 

Spanish adventures — Ponce de Leon in Florida — Various expedi- 
tions, 5. Luis de Cancello — Menendez, 6. DeEspejio and Vizcaino — 
Motives, 7. Institutions — Circumstances — Extent of Spanish claims, 8. 

CHAPTER III. 

FRENCH SETTLEMENTS. 

New France — Carolina : Fate of its Huguenots, 9. Expedition to 
avenge them — Acadie and Maine : De Monts and De Saussaye, 10. 
Canada: Champlain — Collisions with the English, 11. Priests and 
missionaries — Other settlers — Institutions — Circumstances, 12. Ex- 
tent of French claims, 13. 

CHAPTER IV. 

ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 

Section 1. — Early movements — England and Columbus —Voyages 
of the Cabots, 14. Interval : Gilbert and Drake, 15. Raleigh — Fail- 
1* (v) 



VI CONTENTS. 

ures of his colonics, 16. Gosnold and others — 111 si:ccess of the Eng- 
lish, 17. 

Section 2. — Companies — Organized efforts, 18. Patent of Virginia, 
18. London Company : Members and colonists — Jamestown — New 
charters, 19. Fortunes of the colonj^ — Institutions, 20. An infant 
colony — Fall of the company, 21. Virginia a royal province — Growth 
of the colony, 22. Plymouth Company : Members — Colonization 
attempted, 23. Various proprietors and companies — Settlement of 
Plymouth, 24. Its distinction in history, 25. Political Forms — Spirit, 
26. Grants — Attempt at general government — Chaos, 27. New 
Hampshire and New Somersetshire — Cape Ann and Salem, 28. Com- 
pany of Massachusetts Bay — Boston, 29. Increase and independence 
— Charter government, 30. Puritan principles — External relations — 
Internal relations, 31. Connecticut, 32. Providence and Rhode 
Island — Dissolution of the council, 33. End of companies — Position 
of New England — Thomas Morton, 31. 

Section 3. — Proprietors — Grant of Maryland, 35. A proprietary 
government — lleligious liberty — Troubles, 3G. Other proprietors — 
Conclusion — English motives, 37. Institutions — Circumstances — 
Enghsh names, 38. 

CHAPTER V. 

DUTCH SETTLEMENTS. 

Group of traders — Spirit in Holland — Dwindled in America — Hud- 
son's voyage, 39. Company of New Nethcrland, 40. Proposals of the 
Plymouth Puritans — West India Company — Walloon colony, 41. 
New Amsterdam — Patroons, 42. English claims, 43. Trade of the 
colony, 44. 

CHAPTER VI. 

SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS. 

Idea of Gustavus Adolphus — Oxenstiern calls in Germany — Re- 
sults, 46. Opposing claims, 47. 

CHAPTER VII. 

INDIAN RACES. 

European races — Indian races — Names and numbers, 48. Algon- 
quins — Iroquois, 49. Mobilians — Customs and institutions, 50. In- 
fluence upon the European — Counter influence upon the Indian, 51. 
African race — The country, 52. 



CONTENTS. Vll 

PART II. 

ENQLISH DOMINION. 

168S — 1763, 

CHAPTER I. 

THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 

Old and new colonies — Plj^moutli annexed — Maine annexed, 5o. 
New Hampshire — Massachusetts, 56. Connecticut — Rhode Island — 
Four Colonies in New England, 57. Virginia, Maryland, 58. Caro- 
lina, North and South, 59. New York, 60. New Jersey, 61. Pennsyl- 
vania, 62. Delaware — Georgia, 63. Aspect of the thirteen, 64. 

CHAPTER II. 

COLONIAL RELATIONS. 

j^j;vces — Classes, 66. Of the old world, 67. Institutions belong to 
the freemen — English law, 68. Colonial governments, 69. Towns, 70. 
Assemblies, 71. Churches — Persecution in Massachusetts: Child, 72. 
Baptists, 73. Saltonstall's remonstrance — Dunster of Harvard College, 
74. Quakers, 75. Witches, 76. Persecution elsewhere, 77. Save in 
Rhode Island, 78. Inter-colonial difficulties — Shawomet and Massa- 
chusetts, 79. United Colonies of New England, 80. Treatment of 
Rhode Island — Disagreements, 81 . Dissensions elsewhere — Penn and 
Baltimore, 82. Relations to the mother country — The crown — 
Charles II. and Massachusetts, 83. Loss of the Massachusetts and 
other charters — Parliament, 85. Navigiition acts — Duties, 86. Royal 
governors — Berkeley in Virginia — Bacon's rebellion, 87. Andros in 
IsTew England, 88. Revolution — But not liberty, 89. Fletcher in New 
York, 90. General strictness, 91. Perils of the frontier, 92. 

CHAPTER III. 

INDIAN WARS. 

Spirit of the Indians — Spirit of the Europeans, 93. Missionary 
labors — The Mayhews and Eliot, 94. Supports — Results, 95. Wars 
in Virginia and Maryland, 93. Pequot war — Narragansets, 97. King 
Philip. 98. War throughout New England — Destruction of the Nar- 
ragansets, 99. Of Philip — Peace, 100. Abenakis in arms — Peace in 



VIU CONTENTS. 

the centre and south — War in North Carolina, 101. In South Carolina 
— With Cherokees — With western tribes, 102. Pontiac's war — Indians 
in Pennsylvania, 103. Other wars, but the issue decided — Later mis- 
sions, 104. 

CHAPTER IV. 

DUTCH WARS. 

Wars with Indians, 106. EflFect upon New Netherland — Internal 
restrictions, 107. Religious persecution — Subjection of New Sweden, 
108. New Amstel — English aggressions, 109. War: Loss of the 
province — Recovery and final loss. 111. 

CHAPTER V. 

SPANISH WARS. 

Spanish race — Its colony — Collisions with the English, 112. Effect 
on the colony — War: Attacks on St. Augustine and Charleston, 113. 
Treaty of Utrecht — Second war : Descents on Florida — Third war : 
Georgia and Florida, 114. Fourth war: Cession of Florida, 115. Spain 
in Louisiana and California — Character of the Spanish wars, 116. 

CHAPTER VI. 

FRENCH POSSESSIONS. 

French race — New France — System of government, 117. Relations 
with Indians and English, 118. Acadie, including Maine — Canada, 
including New York, Wisconsin, Michigan, 119. The Mississippi: 
Illinois — Louisiana, 120. French dominion — Colony in Texas, 121. 
Colony in Mississippi — Colony in Alabama — Grant to Crozat, 122. 
Western settlements : Indiana — Loss of Acadie — Forts : Pennsylvania 
and Ohio, 123. Mississippi Company : New Orleans — Missouri : the 
thirteen of France '— Vastness and weakness, 124. 

CHAPTER VII. 

FRENCH WARS. 

Wars with Indians in the north — In the south — Strife between the 
French and the English, 125. Indecisive wars — King William's war, 
126. Its character and course, 127. Religious differences — Queen 
Anne's war, 128. Collision in the west, 129. And in the east — King 
George's war, 130. Blood shed in Nova Scotia, 131. The Ohio Com- 
pany — Blood shed in Pennsylvania : George Washington — The final 
struggle, 132. Extent, 133. Losses of the English — Their subsequent 
victories, 134. Conclusion of the war — The French retire, 135. French 
and English compared, 136. 



CONTENTS. IX 

CHAPTER VIII. 

COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT. 

Development of territory — Of occupation, 137. Of habits of life — 
Of education, 138. Colleges — Of the press, 139. Official interference, 
140. Editions of the Bible — Intellectual development : In action, 141. 
In literature — In science, 142. In art, 143. Influences from abroad — 
Liberality in religion, 144. Church of England, 145. Project of bishops, 
146. Classes : The slaves, 147. Colonies : Union, 148. Contributions 
to Boston, 149. 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE MOTHER COUNTRY. 

Yiews of the mother country — Board of trade, 150. African Com- 
pany, 151. Colonial governors, 152. Cornbury in New York — Burnet 
and Belcher in Massachusetts, 153. Clinton's appeal, 154. Parliamen- 
tary interference — Commercial rule, 155. Military rule — Impressment 
at Boston — A commander-in-chief of the colonics, 156. Judicial ten- 
ure — Writs of assistance, 157. English dominion, 158. Effects on the 
colonies — Upon the mother country, 159. Temporary unity, 160. 



PART III. 

INDEPENDENCE. 

1763-1797. 

CHAPTER I. 

PROVOCATIONS. 

Old troubles extended — Parties in the mother country, 163. Views 
of the colonies — Parties in the colonies, 164. The two sides — Minis- 
tries of the period — Point of taxation, 165. Discussion — Sugar act, 
166. Stamp act — Resistance, 167. Congress — Declaration of rights 
and liberties, 168. Effect, 170. Kiots — Non-importation and non-con- 
sumption, 171. Repeal of Stamp act, 172. American rejoicings — New 
acts — Resistance again, 173. Massachusetts convention, 184. Act 
concerning trials in England, 175. Colonial divisions — Boston mas- 
sacre, 176. Other disturbances, 177. Additional act concerning trials 



X CONTENTS. 

— Tea destroyed in Boston, 178. And elsewhere — Slave trade, 179. 
Chastisement of Massachusetts and Boston, 180. Quebec act — Con- 
ventions and Provincial Congress in Massachusetts, 181. National 
spirit — Continental Congress, 182. Its work — American Association, 
183. Petition and addresses — Peace or war, 184. Preparation, 185. 

CHAPTER II. 

WAR. 

Arming of Massachusetts — Not unprovoked or unanticipated, 186. 
Arming of other colonies — Course of Parliament, 187. First collision, 
188. Its significance — Lexington and Concord, 189. Effect : Meck- 
lenburg declaration, 190. "War in Massachusetts — Ticondcroga and 
Crown Point — Proceedings in Congress, 191. Washington appointed 
commander-in-chief, 192. Bunker Hill — "Washington at the head of 
the army, 193. Difficulties — Siege of Boston, 194, General govern- 
ment, 195. The thirteen complete — Military operations, 196. Loyalists 

— Great Britain determined, 197. Washington before Boston — Recov- 
ery of the town — The victory, 198. Increasing perils, 199. 

CHAPTER III. 

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

Transformation of colonies to states — Idea of independence, 200. 
North Carolina and Virginia — Congress — Hesitation, 201. Lee's reso- 
lution — Debate, 202. Committee on declaration — Resolution adopted, 
203. And the declaration — The United States, 204. Plan of confed- 
eration — Unity in Congress — State constitutions, 205. Divisions 
amongst the people, 296. 

CHAPTER IV. 

WAR, CONTINUED. SECOND PERIOD. 

Three periods — Characteristics of the second period — Reception of 
the declaration, 207. Defence of Charleston — Loss of New York, 208. 
Loss of Lake Champlain and the lowei^Hudson — Loss of Newport, 209. 
Defence of New Jersey, 210. Organization of army, 211. Dictatorship 

— Paper money, 212. Amval of Lafayette, 213. Defeat of Bnrgoyne, 
214. Loss of the Hudson Highlands — Loss of Philadelphia, ^215. 
Washington's emljarrassmcnts — Loss of the Delaware, 216. Wickes's 
cruise — Cabal against Washington, 217. Army quarrels, 218. Army 
sufferings — Aspect of Congress, 219. Trcat}^ with France — British 
conciliation, 220. Recovery of Philadelphia, 221. Possession of Illi- 
nois — End of the period, 222. 



CONTENTS. Xi 

CHAPTER V. 

WAR, CONTINUED. THIRD PERIOD. 

Characteristics — Failure to recover Newport, 223. British and Indian 
ravages, 224. Decline of American affairs, 22-5. Loss of Georgia — 
Defence of Charleston, 226. Failure to recover Savannah — Invasion 
of Virginia — Operations in the north, 227. Jones's cruise, 228. Spain 
in the war, 229. Loss of South Carolina — Failure to recover it, 230. 
Abandonment of the south — Its defence — Darkness in the north, 231. 
Light in the south, 233. Holland in the war — Final adoption of the 
Confederation, 23i. Its inefficicnc}', 235. Defence of the Carolinas, 
236. The ccnti-al states in danger, 237. Crisis — American prepara- 
tions, 238, Defeotof Corn wallis, 239. Effect — Prospects, 240. Evac- 
uation of the south — The European combatants, 241. Cessation of 
hostilities — Release of prisoners, 242. Treaties of peace, 243. Evacu- 
ation of the north — Troubles in the American army, 244. Disbanding 

— Government of the nation, 245. Washington's counsels, 246. And 
prayers, 247. 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE CONSTITUTION. 

Foreign sympathy — Lafayette's visit, 248. Wants of America — 
Organization, 249. The states : Internal troubles, 250. Dismember- 
ments — Case of Vermont, 251. Disputes between state find state — 
General government, 253. Organization of the north-west territory, 
254, Difficulties •\\ith Spain, 255. And Great Britain, 256. Dark times 

— Old foundations — Recent superstructures, 257. Religions privileges, 
258. Ecclesiastical organizations — Suggestions of a national Consti- 
tution, 259. Conventions at Alexandria and Annapolis — Action of 
Virginia, 260. Of other states and of Congress, 261. Opening of the 
Convention — Aspect, 262. Plans of a constitution, 263. Question of 
powers, 264. A national system adopted — Parties : Small states and 
large states — Views of state government, 265. Votes of states, 266. 
Agitation, 267. Parties : Nofth and south — Apportionment of repre- 
sentation — The slave trade, 268. Details and discussions, 269. Adop- 
tion of the Constitution — Opposition in the nation, 270. Constitutional 
writings, 271. Adoption by the states, 272. Character of the trans- 
action, 273. Sympathy for mankind — Literature of the revolution and 
the Constitution, 274. The music of Billings, 275. 



Xll . CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 

WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 

"Washington president, 276. Organization of government — Solemnity 
of the worlv, 277. Washington to his fellow-Christians — The nation, 
278. Work of Congress : The departments and the judiciary — Amend- 
ments to the Constitution, 279. Revenue — Credit, 280. Manner of 
decision, 281, National bank — Parties, 282. Especially north and 
south — Points concerning slavery, 283. As to the territories, 284. 
Starting point of future strife, 285. Presidential tours — Work of the 
states — New states — Dependence upon Washington, 286. Animosity 
of parties — Insurrection in Pennsylvania, 288. Indian wars, 289. In- 
dian interests, 290. Heckewelder, the missionary — Tribute to Algiers, 
291. Foreign relations — Commercial treaties, 292. Treaty with Spain 
— Relations with Great Britain and France, 293. Parties thereupon, 
294. Washington proclaims neutrality — Point proposed — Mission of 
Genet, 295. Great Britain and France invade American neutrality — 
Threatened war with Great Britain, 297. Mission of Jay, 298. His 
treaty, 299. Opposition — Ratification — Continued opposition, 300. The 
point gained, 301. Continued embarrassments : From abroad, 302. And 
at home, 303. Abuse of Washington, 304. His retirement — Lafayette, 
305. 



PART IV. 

UNION. 

1797 — 1872. 

CHAPTER I. 

PARTY ADMINISTRATIONS. 

Parties in power — Missions to France, 309. Arming of the United 
States — War, 310. Strain upon the nation, 311. Nullification, 312. 
Another mission to France, 313. Mississippi Territory : Slavery under 
debate — Territory of Indiana: Slavery again, 314. Death of Washing- 
ton — Fall of the federalists, 315. Acquisition of Louisiana, 316. Or- 
ganization of Louisiana territories, 317. Other teiTitorial and state 
organizations — Burr's projects, 318. Difficulties with Great Britain — 
Affair of the Chesapeake, 31^ The administration against war, 320. 
Opposition — Indian hostilities, 322. Louisiana and Florida — Warlike 
preparations against Great Britain, 323. 



CONTENTS. xiii 

CHAPTER II. 

WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 

Declaration — Cause of the United States, 325. War at home, 326. 
Means for the war, 327. Position of Great Britain — The war — Losses 
on north-western frontier, 328. Perry's victory on Lalce Erie — Opera.- 
tions on New Yorlc frontier, 329. On Niagara frontier, 331. Defence 
of Lake Champlain — British superiority, 332. Successes at sea — Sub- 
sequent reverses, 333. Losses upon the coast — Capture of Washington 
and Alexandria, 334. Defence of Baltimore, 335. Indian foes — 
National straits, 336. Party controversies, 337. Hartford Convention 
— Charges of disunion, 338. Proceedings of the Convention, 339. Re- 
sults — Nullification in Connecticut and Massachusetts, 340. Defence 
of Louisiana, 341. Martial law at New Orleans, 342, Reappearance 
of the navy — Peace preliminaries, 343. Treaty of Ghent, 344. Pro- 
tection of foreigners — Indian treaty — Algerine treaty, 346. Exhaus- 
tion — Independence, 347. 

CHAPTER III. 

MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

Recovery — Administrations — Seminole war, 349. Acquisition of 
Florida, 350. New states — Proposal of Missouri, 351. Intense agita- 
tion — Question of slavery, 352. The compromise, 353. Different in- 
terpretations—Admission of Missouri, 354. Slave trade, 355. 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE MONROE DOCTRINE. 

Independence of Central and South America — The Monroe doctrine, 
356. Authorship — Purpose — Aid to Greece, 358. Lafayette's visit, 
359. Congress of Panama, 360. 

CHAPTER V. 

TARIFF COMPROMISE. 

Nullification — In Georgia, 361. Tariffs, 362. Exposition and pro- 
test of South Carolina— Jackson's first acts, 363. Webster's defence 
of the nation — Bad temper, 364. South Carolina nullifies, 365. And 
threatens to secede — Resolution of government, 366. Resolution of 
states, 367. Tariff compromise— The president's regret, 368. 
2 



XIV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

AiS^TI-SLAVERY. 

Calhoun's basis — Two periods in the anti-slavery movement, 369. 
Southampton massacre — Lundy and Garrison, 370. American Anti- 
Slavery Society, 371. Reaction among the people — In the government, 
372. Murder of Lovejo}^, 373. Violence of al)olitionists — Massachu- 
setts missions, 374. Necessity of anti-slavery, 375. 

CHAPTER VII. 

ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 

United States Bank — Finances, 376. State insolvency — Civil war 
in Ilhodc Island, 377. New states and territories — Indian wars — For- 
eign relations : France, 378. Great Britain, 379. Treaty of Wasliington, 
380. Republic of Texas, 381. Project of annexation — Revived, 382. 
Effected, 383. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

WAR WITH MEXICO. 

Causes — Hostilities, 38.5. Oregon controversy, 386. Conquest of 
north-east of Mexico, 387. Conquest of Chihuahua — New Mexico — 
California, 388. Operations in Gulf of Mexico — March upon city of 
Mexico, 390, Battles on the way — In valley of Mexico, 391. Wilmot 
proviso, 392. Mexican proviso — Treaty, 393. 

CHAPTER IX. 

COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

Old domain — New domain, 394. Freesoil party — Root's resohition 
— Convention of southern members of Congress, 395. California con- 
stitution — Clay's resolutions, 396. Compromise — Its adoption, 397. 
Fugitive slave act — Last of the compromises, 398. 

CHAPTER X. 

KANSAS. 

Ten years' struggle — Temporary success of compromise, 400. Repeal 
of the Missouri compromise — Ostend manifesto, 401. Immigration to 
Kansas— Elections, 402. Civil war, 403. Assault upon Senator Sum- 
ner— Election of 1856, 404. Drcd Scott case — Personal liberty laws, 
405. Commercial crisis — Mormons — Montgomery Convention, 40.6. 
Lincoln's rnd Seward's predictions — John Brown's raids, 407. New 
states, 408. 



CONTENTS. XV 

CHAPTER XI. 

SECESSION. 

Lincoln elected president — South Carolina prepares to secede — 
"Warning in Georgia, 409. President's message, 410. Crittenden com- 
promise — Secession of South Carolina, 411. Anderson at Fort Sumter, 
412. Star of the West, 413. Secession of other states — Peace conven- 
tions, 414. Confederate government, 415. Lincoln on the way to 
Washington, 416. Inauguration — Contrast, 417. Attempt at negotia> 
tion — Relief of Fort Sumter, 418. 

CHAPTER XII. 

CIVIL WAR. 

First Period : April, 1861, to January, 1863. — Fall of Fort Sumter, 
420. Uprising, 421. More secession — Rebellion or war, 423. Two 
periods of the war — Lyon's defence of Missouri, 424. West Virginia 
for the Union, 425. East Tennessee — Extreme measures, 426. Con- 
gress and the president's message, 427. Bull Run, 428. Carolina and 
Georgia coast — The Trent, 430. Military preparations, 432. Cam- 
paigns in the west — Recovery of New Orleans, 433. Fort Pulaski — 
Roanoke, Newl)ern, and Fort Macon — Merrimac and Monitor, 434. 
Peninsular campaign, 436. Northern Virginia — Defence of Maryland, 
437. Defence of Cincinnati, 438. Reverses — Emancipation, 439. Eflfcct 
of the proclamation, 442. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

CIVIL WAR, CONTINUED. 

Second Period : January, 18G3, to Ajvil, 1865. — Finances, 444. 
Yicksbnrg, 445. Port Hudson — Chanccl!orsvi;ie, 447. Gettysburg, 
448. Attempt on Indiana and Ohio — Draft, 450. Fort Sumter, 451. 
Colored troops, 452. Great Britain and cor.fcdcratc cruisers, 453. 
Ciiattanooga, 454. Grant lieutenant-general, 453. Red River — Franco 
and Mexico, 453. Virginia, 457. Georgia, 459. Kcarsargc and Ala- 
bama — Mobile Bny, 461. Re-election of L-ncoln — Thirteenth Amend- 
ment, 462. Slaves enlisted by the confederates — Fort Fisher, 463. 
Sherman in the Carolinas, 464. Grant's victory over Lee, 465. Assas- 
sination of the pi'esidcnt — Close of the war, 466. Prisoners, 467. 
Sanitary and Christian commissions, 468. Cost of the war, 469. 



XVI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

REUNION. 

DiflSculties — Disarming, 470. Freedmen, 471. Reconstruction of 
states, 472. Impeachment of President Johnson — Fourteenth and Fif- 
teenth Amendments, 475, Enforcing the Fourteenth Amendment — 
Amnesty, 476. Financial administration — Civil service, 477. Indians, 
478. Mexico and France — Alaska and Russia — Alabama claims, 479. 
Settlement, 481. 

CHAPTER XV. 

NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 

Three quarters of a century, 482. Causes at work, 483. Public 
schools, 484. Higher education — Public libraries — Art museums — 
Letters, 485. Science — Art, 487. Inventions — Expeditions, 488. 
Charities, 489. Drawbacks, 490. 



PAET I. 



occxji»i?LTioisr, 



1492-1638. 



(1) 



CHArXER I. 

Discovery. 

Tradi- The first man to discover the shores of the 

tiouai. United States, according to Icelandic writings, was 
the Icelander Leif. A countryman of his, sailing from 
Greenland, had reached Newfoundland or Labrador, and 
Leif sailed in search of tlie same iraul, a few years after- 
wards. He is described as having found more than he 
sought, by keeping on to the southward and westward, 
imtil he arrived at a point wdiich he called Vinland, from 
the wild grapes growing there, and wliich has been sup- 
posed to be our own Rhode Island. This was in the year 
1000, and from that time, for upwards of three hundred 
years, voyages to these coasts continued- to be made at 
intervals by Icelanders or Northmen. Other traditions 
bring over Madoc and his Welshmen in the twelftii 
century, and the Venetian brothers Zeni at the close of 
the fourteenth ; but when they came, and if they came at 
all, cannot now be told. 

Histori- Whatever may be thought of these traditional 
^^^' discoveries, this much, at least, is historical about 

them : that they quickened the discoveries of a later period. 
The idea that laud could be gained by sailing westward 
over the Atlantic was a very old one, but it needed to be 
revived. At last it triumphed, and Christopher Columbus, 
a Genoese in the Spanish service, discovered Guanahani, 
or San Salvador, one of the Bahama Islands, at dawn on 

(3) 



4 PART I. 1492-1638. 

Friday, October 12, 1492. He thought he had succeeded 
in finding a western route to the Indies, and therefore 
called his discovery the West Indies. On his third voyage 
westward, in 1498, he reached the American continent off 
tlie Island of Trinidad ; but if he knew it to be a continent, 
he supposed it to be Asiatic, and so he continued to sup- 
pose it till his death in 1506. The next year a German 
geographer, drawing from the descriptions given by 
Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine who had crossed the 
ocean under the Spanish and Portuguese flags, coined the 
name of America. Several years still elapsed before 
Columbus was known to have discovered a New "World. 
„ . No event in history appears to have been more 

of the happily timed. The middle ages were closing, the 
modern were opening ; the great nations of Europe 
were putting forth their energies, material and immaterial, 
when the discovery of America came just in season to 
help and be helped by the movements of these stirring 
years. Had it taken place before, or long before, it would 
have suffered from the want of those who could turn it to 
account ; had it been delayed, or long delayed, genera- 
tions would have languished without the golden oppor- 
tunities which it gave them. The old world needed the 
new ; the new needed the old. 



Spanish 



CHAPTER II. 

Spanish Settlements. 

From almost every point first gained in America, 
adven- as well as from the shores of Spain, adventures, 
^^^^' some great, some small, some national, some in- 
dividual, were urged by the Spaniards in all directions. 
The West Indies, at first the whole, soon became the mere 
centre of the Spanish possessions. 

The first to reach the territory of the present 

Ponce de . 

Leon in United States was Ponce de Leon, a companion of 
°" *■ Columbus. Long visited by dreams of riches, and 
latterly, in his advancing age, excited by rumors of a foun- 
tain in which j^outh might be renewed, Ponco set sail from 
Porto Rico in search of the treasures in the north. On 
Easter Sunday, — in the Spanish calendar Pascua Florida, 
— he descried a land to which, in his mingled visions of 
resurrection and of abundance, he gave the name of Florida 
or Flower-land, (1512.) Nine years later, with a com- 
mission from the Spanish crown, as governor of Florida, 
Ponce returned to conquer and to colonize his discovery. 
But driven off by the natives of the coast, the old adven- 
turer left Florida to return no more, (1521.) 
,. . A series of expeditions had already bejam to 

txpedi- scour the Atlantic coast. The Portuguese Cor- 
tereal had led the way, twenty years before, in a 
cruise towards the north, (1501.) A line of Spanish ad- 
venturers, intent upon treasure and conquest, succeeded. 
1 * (5) 



G PART I. 1492-1638. 

Vasquez de Ayllon -twice made descents upon Chicora, the 
later Carolina, (1520-24.) Gomez sailed farther to the 
north in quest of a western passage to richer lands^, (1525.) 
Pamphilo de Narvaez tried his fortune in Florida, (1528,) 
whither also De Soto directed his greater expedition, and 
pursued his wanderings northward and westward (1539-43) 
v/ith no greater reward than the discovery of the Mississip})i, 
(1541.) At the same time, Yasqucz Coronado was pene- 
trating from Mexico high up into the interior, (1540-42.) 
v.'liile De Cabrillo (1542) was coasting the Pacific shore, 
and, though dying on the voyage, leaving his pilot, Ferrelo, 
to ascend as far as Oregon, (1543.) Of these western ex- 
plorations there vrere few if any results to satisfy the 
explorers. Nor were the adventurers in the east better 
contented ; the only ones to gain any thing being those who 
laded their ships with slaves. The natives had been pressed 
into bondage almost from the moment when they were first 
seen in the West Indies. 

Luis de ^ figure of moFC Christian aspect appears in 

Ciinrciio. L^^^jg (jg Caucello, a Dominican friar. Obtaining 
an order from Spain that all the slaves from the northern 
shore of the Gulf of Mexico should be returned, he set 
sail with such as he could collect. Instead of proposing to 
conquer the natives, he v/cnt with the iiope of converting 
them to a religion of peace. ]>ut in his first intervievr with 
them on the coast, he and two priests accompanying liim 
v/ere slain, (1549.) 

Menen- Nearly twenty years elapsed, and our soil was 
''^^- still unoccupied by the Spaniards. At lengtli a 

veteran commander, Menendez de Aviles, engaged to coi:;- 
plete the conquest and to commence the colonization of 
Florida, with a train of soldiers, priests, and negro slaves. 
He was of a stern temper, without a vision of romance or a 
touch of sensibility to turn him from the severe enteqirise 



SPANISH SETTLEMENTS. 7 

which he had assumed. He began with the foundation of St. 
Augustine, (September 8, 1565,) the oldest town in the 
United States. Then he routed and slew some French 
settlers who had lately encamped upon the ground claimed 
by Spain, and whose destruction had been one of the great 
incentives to his expedition. Where they fell most thickly, 
the conqueror marked out the site of a Christian church. 
The colony thus resolutely founded brought none of the rich 
returns that had been looked for ; but it was not abandoned. 

Fifteen years afterwards, the expeditions from 
jioaud Mexico were renewed by Ruiz (1580) and De 
Espejio, (1581,) the latter of whom, followed by 
soldiers and Indians, marched northward, until he named 
the country New Mexico, and founded the settlement of 
Santa Fe, the second town of the United States in point 
of age. Twenty years later, (1602,) a squadron under Se- 
bastiano Vizcaino explored the Californian shore, bestow- 
ing upon its headlands and its bays many of the names 
which they still bear. It was Vizcaino's hope to colonize 
the coast, but he died in the midst of his schemes, (1608.) 

The motives of the Sjianisli settler, as vre ]oer- 

Motives. . ^ ' ^ 

ceive, were j^artly of a high and partly of a low 
nature. Devoted to great aims and to generous deeds, he 
encountered, as Luis de Cancello did in Florida, the perils 
of an unknown shore, in order to impart to others the faith 
in which he lived and for v/hich lie was willins; to die. But 
in another aspect the Spanish character grovv's dark and 
threatening. Men, like the greater part of those who have 
been mentioned, sought our land for gold or for dominion ; 
sometimes, indeed, v/ith a national object, but more gener- 
al]y for merely selfish ends. Motives of this sort led to 
scenes of cruelty and of carnage, on which it is, fortunately, 
unnecessary to dwell. 



Institu- 
tions. 



PAUT I. 1492-1638. 

The institutions of Spain were those of an abso- 
lute monarchy. They lent but little aid to the devel- 
opment of the better elements in the national charac- 
ter. Indeed, thej rather encouraged the opposite elements, 
both before and after the colonies of the nation were 
founded. A military rule was the only political institution 
of Florida. It was in the hands of a few officials, whose 
authority was kept up at the sacrifice of the general prog- 
ress of the settlements. A rigid system of trade, uphold- 
ing a monopoly in favor of the government, or of the 
capitalists dependent on the government at home, increased 
the obstacles with which the colony had to contend. 

Coming with these motives and under these insti- 

Circum- ^utiQj2s, the Spaniards found themselves in circum- 
stances. ^ ■•■ 

stances of similar tendency. Choosing the south 
for their first, and, as it proved, their only settlements, from 
its promising the richest harvest, they met the influences 
springing from the air above them and from the earth 
beneath them. The habits of indulgence and of repose 
which ensued were any thing but favorable to character or 
to prosperity. 

Extent of ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^1' bctwecn were the Spanish settle- 
Spanisii mcuts. But the Spanish claims were universal. 

In the first place, there was a papal bull of 1493, 
conveying a right to all America. In the next place, there 
were the successive discoverers from Ponce de Leon to 
Vizcaino, whose labors had won the continent anew. The 
name of Florida was stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; that of New Mexico was made 
equally extensive in the interior and on the west. Could 
names, and deeds, and papal bulls have sufficed to support 
the Spanish claim, it would have prevailed throughout the 
United States. 



CHAPTER III. 

French Settlements. 

jfe^ The approaches of France to our country were 

France, made, first by fishermen, (1504,) and then by navi- 
gators. A Florentine, Verrazzano, in the French ser- 
vice, sailing along the coast from Florida to Newfound- 
land, was not deterred by any previous discoveries from 
giving to the continent the name of New France^ (1524.) 
Ten years after, the Frenchman Cartier renewed the name 
in voyages in and about the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
(1534-42.) 

Nothing, however, was done in a persevering 
Fate of its "^ay to fix the name upon the territory, until Admi- 
iiugue- j.^! j)g Coligny conceived the idea of a colony to 
which his brother Protestants, the Huguenots, might 
repair for refuge against persecution in France. After 
failing to make a settlement in South America, De Coligny 
despatched a party to the northern coast, where a fort, 
named Charlesfort in honor of the French king, was 
erected near Port Royal in the present South Carolina, 
(1562.) This settlement likewise falling through, another 
was made upon the St. John's in Florida, where a fort 
called Caroline was reared, (1564.) The mutinous dispo- 
sitions of the colonists and their Indian wars had much 
reduced the settlement, when it was annihilated by the 
Spanish force under Menendez de Aviles, (1565.) Such 
of the French as did not escape or fall in battle were put 

(9) 



10 PART I. 1492-1638. 

to death by the Spaniard and the Catholic, " not as French- 
men," he is said to have declared, "but as Lutherans.'* 
Such was the unhappy fate of the first fugitives from the 
old world to the new. Objects at once of religious and of 
national animosity, they were pursued by enemies enlisted 
against them as on a crusade. The passions of Europe 
obtained fresh space in America ; the feeble fell, the strong 
triumphed as they had done in older lands. 

But there was something inspiring, after all, in 
tioB to the associations of the western shore. If the fugi- 
avenge tives thither were murdered by their foes, they were 

them. "^ "^ 

not forgotten by their friends. Three years after 
their victory, the Spaniards were surprised on the same 
ground by a French expedition under De Gourgues, a sol- 
dier of Gascony, who had sold his estate in order to avenge 
his fallen countrymen. He took the Spanish forts, and 
hung his prisoners, with the inscription above them, " Not 
as Spaniards or Moriseoes, but as Traitors, Robbers, and 
Assassins." Thus was om* soil a second time darkened 
with the slaughter of strangers. Without waiting an attack 
from the Spaniards at St. Augustine, De Gourgues sailed 
home, the last of the French to attempt the possession of 
Florida or of Carolina, (1568.) 

A long period elapsed before the French reap- 
and peared, except as fishermen or as traders, in any 
^*M^* P^^ ^^ America. At length, a grant of all the 
and D© territory from Pennsylvania to New Brunswick, 
Saussaye. ^j^j^j. ^j^^ name of Acadie, was made by Henry 
IV. of France to the Sieur de Monts, (1603,) and 
he, after a hard winter, made the first permanent set- 
tlement of Frenchmen in America at Port Royal, (1604,) 
since Annapolis. A later attempt to make a settle- 
ment upon Cape Cod met with immediate failure on 
account of the hostility of the natives, (1606.) Some 



\ FRENCH SETTLEMENTS. 11 

years afterwards, one or two Jesuit missionaries crossed 
over from that part of Acadie which was occupied, to a 
part as yet unoccupied, within the limits of the present 
Maine, (1612.) They were followed the next year, by Do 
Saussaye, the agent of Madame de Guercheville to whom 
the earlier grant to De Monts was now reconveyed ; the 
limits being extended so far as to reach from Florida to the 
St. Lawrence. De Saussaye, accompanied by a few Jes- 
uits, began the colony of St. Sauveur upon Mount Desert 
Island, off the coast of Maine, (1613.) It was hardly be- 
gun, however, before H was broken up by an attack from 
an English armed vessel belonging to the then rising colony 
of Virginia. 

_ . Meantime the banners of France had been car- 

Canada. 

Cham- ried up the St. Lawrence. Champlain, the greatest 
^ "°' leader whom the French had as yet followed to the 
west, laid the foundations of Quebec in the heart of the 
province of Canada, (1608.) The next year, forming an 
alliance with the Algonquins, then at war with the Iroquois 
or Five Nations of New York, he marched southward to 
the lake which bears his name, (1609.) Six years later, 
he took the lead in another foray which penetrated the 
forests on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, (1615.) 
A new way appeared to be open to French settlements in 
the United States. 

Collisions But nothing followed. The English arms, after 
with the ^jj interval of several years, were carried against 

English. ^ ' ^ 

the northern settlements of the French. Acadie, 
already made the subject of an English grant, and Canada 
were conquered, but restored, (1628-32.) Then the French 
came down in their turn, and drove the English from the 
trading posts established by the Plymouth colony on the 
Maine coast, (1631-35.) The attempts to repel them 
were in vain ; on the contrary, they forbade the English t» 



12 PART I. 1492-1638. 

pass Pemaquid, a point midway between the Kennebec and 
the Penobscot. The interior was at the same time in the 
occupation of the French priests, if of any Europeans. 
Priests "^^^ priests and the missionaries of France were 
and mis- the most prominent amongst her settlers. They 
Bionaries. ^^^^^ ^-^jj ^£ advcnturc as of faith, hesitating at no 
danger, shrinking from no sacrifice. That there should be 
some less worthy amongst the number was a matter of 
course. It was equally natural that, among the most wor- 
thy, there should be many to magnify their work, to count 
their converts too freely, and to oppose their antagonists too 
fiercely. But taken Ul in all, the French missionaries 
have a higher place than most early comers deserve in our 
history. What they were and what they did will appear 
more clearly at a later period. 

other With the priest came the soldier, the explorer, 

settlers. ^^^ ^j^g trader, all animated by the love of enter- 
prise, to say nothing of its rewards in fame or in riches. 
They form a less sinister group than the Spanish settlers, 
more supple, more gay, though by no means more gallant 
or more adventurous. 

institu- Much of the difference may be ascribed to the 
tiona. influence of the French institutions. These, at the 
time in question, were the institutions of a comparatively 
limited monarchy. K there were arbitrary influences in 
the government, sufficient, as we shall hereafter observe, to 
oppress its subjects and its colonies, there was also some- 
thing of a more generous nature, by which the devotedness 
of the missionary, the bravery of the soldier, and the zeal 
of the adventurer were sustained. 

Circum- The circumstanccs in which the French settlers 
Btances. ^gpe placed tended to confirm all their enterprise 
and all their fortitude. Abandoning the southern Carolina 
and drawing in the limits of Acadie on the south, they were 



FRENCH SETTLEMENTS. 13 

for a long time concentrated upon northern shores and in 
northern valleys. In these lands, adventure was not to be 
pursued, nor was sustenance to be obtained, without energy 
and hardihood. 
^ , , , In following: the French into Acadie and Canada, 

Extent of ^ _ _ ' 

French wc havc gonc far beyond the limits of the United 
c aims, gt^^gg^ 3ut their Acadie embraced our Maine, or 
a large portion of it ; their Canada comprehended our Ver- 
mont and our New York, or large portions of them ; not to 
speak of the western regions afterwards included in the 
same province. We shall return to the French at the 
epoch of their later acquisitions. For the present, we 
leave the name of New France, bestowed by Verrazzano 
and Cartier in their voyages, and adopted by De Monts, 
Champlain, and De Saussaye, in their settlements, extend- 
ing in immense proportions along the seaboard and in the 
interior. It was a title to be set against the Florida and 
the New Mexico of Spain. 



England 



CHAPTER IV. 

English Settlements. 

Section I. — Earli/ Movements. 1492 to 1606. 

The English were first connected with America 
and Co through Columbus. When his plans of discovery 
"™ "''• were declined by the Portuguese court, he sent his 
brother Bartholomew to make the same offers to the king 
of England, (1484.) Bartholomew, long upon his way 
and upon his return, was bringing back some favorable 
proposals from Henry VII., just as Christopher was re- 
turning from his first voyage, (1493.) It was too late for 
England to obtain the services of Columbus. 

But it was just in time for England to profit by 
of the his discoveries. Both the king and his subjects, at 
Cabots. Iq^^^ those of his subjects who were interested in 
navigation, seem to have caught the impulse naturally 
springing from such an enterprise as had been achieved. 
"Within three years from the first return of Columbus, Henry 
authorized a Venetian then belonging to Bristol, John 
Cabot, with his three sons, to start an expedition at their 
own expense, in order to do whatever they could for them- 
selves, and at the same time to set up the banners of the 
English monarch, as his vassals and deputies, upon the 
lands supposed to exist northward of those discovered by 
Columbus, (1496.) The Cabots, setting sail in the follow- 
ing year, (1497,) reached a shore called by them Prima 

(U) 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 15 

Vu(a, the First View, since known by the name of 
Labrador. It was more than a year before the continent 
was gained by Columbus. Another voyage, made a year 
later (1498) by Sebastian Cabot, the second son of John, 
and a native of England, was directed along the coast of 
the new continent from the latitude of Labrador to that of 
the Chesapeake, 

So sucMiessful a beginning augured great ends. 
Gilbert I^ut there ensued a long interval, in which none but 
^"•^ isolated and remote adventures towards the west 

Drake. 

were undertaken in England. The fisheries of the 
north were for many years the only objects of attraction in 
the direction of America, Then the opening of hostilities, 
at first rather of a private or piratical than of a national 
character, against Spain,* drew the English towards the 
southern regions. But the central territories, those of 
the present United States, were long unvisited except for 
some passing purpose. More than three quarters of a cen- 
tury had elapsed since the coasting voyage of Sebastian 
Cabot, and both the Spaniards and the French had several 
times seized upon the shores discovered by the English 
navigators, when a new permission to possess and settle the 
western lands was given by Queen Elizabeth to one of her 
noblest subjects, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, (1578.) At the 
same period, while Sir Francis Drake, the half hero, half 
freebooter of the English navy, was on his voyage of ad- 
venture and plunder round the world, he gave the name of 
New Albion to the coasts of California and Oregon. Thus 
gaining a foothold on the western as well as on the eastern 
side of the continent, England was recalled, at a moment 
of general activity throughout the nation, to her interests in 
America. 

♦ Beginning about 1570, though there was no formal war until 1585. 



16 PART 1. 1492-1638. 

Sir Humphrey Gilbert perished in the course of 

Raleigh. 1 , r^. A • 

a second attempt to reach his American possessions, 
(1583.) But liis claims were immediately transferred to 
his half brother, Walter Raleigh, the courtier and the 
cavalier of the age in England, (1584.) A voyage of 
exploration was immediately made under his directions to 
the coast of our North Carolina, of which so flattering an 
account was returned to him and to his sovereign, that the 
name of Virginia, from the virgin Queen Elizabeth, was 
not thought too great for the new land. 

J ^ In the following year, (1585,) Sir Richard Gren- 

of his ville, one of the chief commanders of the time, left 
*^ ^^^ ' a colony of one hundred and eighty persons at 
Roanoke Island ; but such were the hardships which they 
encountered, that they were only too well satisfied to be 
taken home by Sir Francis Drake a year afterwards. 
They had scarcely gone when Grenville returned with 
supplies for them, and he, unwilling to have the colony 
abandoned, left fifteen of his mariners to keep possession 
until they could be reenforced, (1586.) Tlie little band 
was gone, murdered, it was believed, by the natives, when, 
in the next year, (1587,) a fresh party of one hundred 
and seventeen arrived. Soon after they came, the first 
English child to see the light in America was bom. She 
was the daughter of Ananias Dare, and the granddaughter 
of John White, the leader of the expedition, who gave her 
the name of Virginia, But the presence of the infant 
brought no better fate to the colony than had befallen its 
predecessors. The one hundred and eighteen disappeared, 
tmd though sought for at various times, were never heard 
of more. Raleigh lost heart as well as means. He made 
over his patent to a number of persons, (1589,) who, with 
less enterprise than he, met with still less success. North 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 17 

Carolina was but a waste as far as English settlements 
were concerned, and Virginia but a name. 

Many years passed before any further attempts 
and were made to occupy the American coast. The 

cessation of hostilities with Spain* at length re- 
opened the way to commercial and colonial enterprise. 
Bartholomew Gosnold, after landing on Cape Cod, sailed 
thence to Buzzard's Bay, where, on Elizabeth's Island, 
named after his queen, he commenced, but soon abandoned, 
a settlement, (1602.) The adjoining coasts were revisited 
the next year (1603) by Martin Pring, and again, the next 
year but one, (1605,) by George Weymouth, both, like 
Gosnold, commanders of distinction. The preparation for 
settlements was decidedly resumed. 

It was high time. The Spaniards had their St. 
cess of Augustine and their Santa Fe, the French their 
the Eng- p^j.^ Royal, though this was beyond the limits of 

our United States. But the English, the first to 
discover the coast, were still without a single foothold upon 
it. Wherever they had gained one, it had slipped from 
beneath them. 



Section II. — Companies. 1606 to 1635. 



Organ- 



Hitherto the efforts of the English in exploring 
ized and in settling the American shore had been those 
of individuals. No one, indeed, unless it were 
those who went on voyages for fishery or for trade, at- 
tempted his enterprise without the formal countenance of 
the sovereign. But 'there had been no organized efforts 
such as were now prepared. 

* 1604. But it was some time since the war had been generally car- 
ried on. 

2* 



18 PART I. 1492-1638. 

Patent of -^ y^^r or two after James I. succeeded to tlw 
Virginia. English throne, he issued the patent of Virginia, 
This was a twofold grant of the American territory 
from what is now North Carolina to what is now Maine. 
Of this vast tract, the southerly half* was appropriated to 
the First Colony, and the northerly f to the Second Colony, 
each colony to be founded and governed by a separate 
council, to which the grant was made. The council or com- 
pany, as it is generally styled, of the First Colony went by 
the name of London, from the residence of its prominent 
members. For a similar reason, the name of Plymouth 
was given to the council or company of the Second Colony. 
The great point, however, is this, that the parties to the 
patent were not colonists, but capitalists, not adventurers, 
but speculators, who, in their respective corporations in 
England, not in America, were declared possessors of the 
best portion of the American territory. At the same time, 
the companies were invested with ample powers to settle 
*' colonists and servants," to impose duties, and to coin 
money. Their obligations, in return, were to pay over to 
the crown a share of their profits,^ and to support the laws 
dnd the church of England. To exercise some sort of 
supervision over so great corporations as these, a council 
for Virginia was instituted by the king, who, to complete 
bis work, put forth a code of laws and regulations for the 
direction of the various bodies which he had created. 



* From lat. 34° to lat. 38°, with a right, if first in the field, to make 
settlements as far north as 41°. 

t From lat. 41° to lat. 45°, with a right, if first in the field, to make 
settlements as far south as 38°. 

I One fifth of the gold and silver, and one fifteenth of the copper, that 
might be found. 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 1§ 



THE LONDON COMPANY. 

Members ^^^^ moving spirit of the London Company ap-' 
and pears to have been Richard Hakluyt, prebendary 
of Bristol, afterwards of Westminster, who had been 
interested in American colonization from the time of Ra- 
leigh's expeditions. Around him were gathered many 
eminent and energetic men, among them Sir George Cal- 
vert, the future founder of Maryland, but none of greater 
promise, in relation to the work before them, than Barthol- 
omew Gosnold, the settler of Elizabeth's Island, and John 
Smith, a hero in the east long before he turned his face 
westward. Gosnold and Smith were both amongst the first 
colonists. 

James- It was in midwinter, (December 19, 1606,) that 
town. j^jj expedition, one hundred strong, set out from 
England. A feeble band as regarded their individual re- 
sources, they were strong in the company by which they 
were sent to stranger shores. The voyage was long, by 
the common route of the West Indies, but Virginia was 
reached at last. The spring (May 13, 1607) saw the 
beginning of the first English town in America. Its royal 
name of Jamestown is now a name alone, 
jfe^ The company had hardly begun its work when 

charters, jt sought new powers. Three years after the 
patent, a second charter was framed, giving isdditional 
authority to the English company, and extending the 
American hmits to the latitude of Philadelphia, (1609.) 
Three years later, (1612,) a third charter vested the powers 
of the company in a General Court of the members, and 
added the Bermuda Islands to their domains. If charters 
were all that the company needed in order to flourish, it 
bade fair to be great and enduring. 

The fortunes of the colony were less promising. Some- 



20 PART I. 1492-1638. 

times at peace, sometimes at war* with the natives, 
of the sometimes contented, sometimes despairing amongst 
CO ony. tj^gmgelves, the colonists went through great vicis- 
situdes. One cause of feebleness is plain enough ; it is the 
entire dependence of the colony upon the company and the 
company's representatives. Another cause of equal mo- 
ment was the variety of rank and of character in the 
colony. The gentleman and the felon, the ardent seeker 
after adventure and the patient toiler for subsistence, the 
freeman, the apprentice, and the slave,t made up a com- 
munity too mixed to possess any steadiness of growth. 
The three first years, (1607-9,) the colonists hung upon 
John Smith, who had become their president in the year 
following the settlement of Jamestown. It is curious to 
see how he led, rebuked, supported them ; he, as the strong 
man, guiding them, as feeble childi'en. One year, (1610,) 
the colony is all but abandoned; another, (1613,) it is 
strong enough to make the attack already mentioned upon 
the French settlements in the north. But the tendency to 
increase, though interrupted, continues, and not without 
support from the company in England, 
institu- The first step to raise the colonists from a state 
tious. of mere vassalage was the grant of an estate to 
each settler, (1615.) The progress from the landholder 
to the freeman followed. The colony had been bound, 
as has been stated, to maintain the church of England. 
Its civil authorities consisted, first of the English crown 
and Parliament, then of the English council, then of 
the English company, by which, according to the various 
charters, the local officers were appointed. These were, in 
the beginning, a council, with a president ; but in a year or 
two from the beginning, a governor and suite, at first with- 

* The Indian wars are related in Part II. Chapter lY. 

f A Dutch man of war brought- the first negro slaves, in 1619. 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 21 

out and afterwards with a council. At length, under the 
government of Sir George Yeardley, the freemen of the 
colony, representing eleven corporations or plantations, 
were called, as burgesses, to a General Assembly, to take 
the matter of taxes, besides other affairs of importance, 
into their own hands, (1619.) This was the system of 
the colonial constitution granted by the company two years 
afterwards, (1621.) In other words, the executive author- 
ity was in the hands of a governor, the judicial in those of 
a governor and a council, with an appeal to an Assembly, 
and the legisla!ive in that of a governor, a council, and an 
Assembly, all subject to the company, Avhieh, of course, 
was subject to the laws and the authorities of England. 
An in- ^^® ^^^ ^P^ ^^ exaggerate the importance of the 
fant English settlements, in comparison with those of 
CO ony. ^j^^ French or the Spanish, or any other nation in 
our country. The truth is, that Virginia, like most of the 
settlements which we shall find in the north, was but an 
infant colony, unable to regulate its trade or its education, 
its habits of life or of thought, except in submission to 
external authorities. One or two examples, occurring under 
the company's jurisdiction, illustrate the dependence of the 
colony during the entire period of which we are now treat- 
ing. A design of a college for native as well as English 
youth, started in England with large subscriptions, found 
no fulfilment in Virginia, (1619-21.) Even the want of 
wives was met, not by individual devotion, but by a com- 
pany speculation ; a large number of young women of good 
character being transported to be sold for a hundred and 
twenty, or even a hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco (at 
three shillings a pound) to the lonely settlers, (1620-21.) 
Fall of Nothing, however, marks the utter dependence 

the com- of the colony so plainly as its inactivity during the 
^' troubles in which the company became involved. 



22 PART I. 1492-1638. 

Dissensions amongst the members, and jealousies amongst 
those who were not members, led to the royal interference ; 
the result being the fall of the company, with all its expen- 
ditures* heavy on its head, (1624.) The colony at this 
time numbered about two thousand, the relics of nine thou- 
sand who had been sent out. Yet for all the two thousand 
did to prove their existence or their independence, the 
colony might have been supposed to be the company's 
shadow, too unsubstantial to support or to oppose the 
power to which it owed its being. 

„. . . Virginia became a royal province The governor 
a royal and the council received their appointment from the 
proTince. j^jjjg^ ^jj^ freemen continuing to elect their Assem- 
bly. It was a national government, instead of a corpora- 
tion system, and as such it seemed to relieve the Virginians. 
At any rate, they grew so much in spirit as to make a stand 
against the royal grant of what they considered their terri- 
tory to the proprietor of Maryland. Their governor, John 
Harvey, not taking part with them as they wished, they 
deposed him, and sent him virtually a prisoner to England, 
(1635.) The king, of course, restored the governor, but 
without reducing the colony to silence or to retribution, 
(1636-37.) The spirit of dependence, however, lingered. 
But the principles of growth and of independence 
of the were at work. Among the earliest settlers were 
coony. ^^^ ^^ culture and of earnestness, men who, like 
Alexander Whitaker, " a scholar, a graduate, and a preach- 
er," devoted themselves to the elevation of the colony. 
Among the earliest governors were Lord De la "Ware, 
(1611,) and Sir George Yeardley, (1619-21,) both of 
strong character and of strong influence. Around such 
individuals as these there would naturally gather an in- 

• From £100,000 to £150,000. 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 2^ 

creasing number and a higher stamp of colonists. The 
interest of the mother country in the colony would natu- 
rally be extended when the dissolution of the company 
opened the way to general emigration and general enter- 
prise. The development of Virginia seemed sure. 

THE PL"OI0UTH COMPANY. 

Mem- Among the members of the Plymouth Company 

bers. were many personages of distinction. The lord 
chief justice of England, Sir John Popham, the governor 
of Plymouth, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and two Gilberts, 
kinsmen and successors of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir 
Walter Raleigh, all engaged in the enterprise. The 
higher the rank, however, of individual members in any 
association, the more likely, in most cases, are clashing 
pretensions and menacing divisions. The Plymouth Com- 
pany never held together in such a way as to carry out 
any effective operations. 

Coioniza- '^ ^^^ members made the first move by sending 
tion at- out a colony of forty-five persons, who encamped 
emp e . ^^^ ^^^ brief year upon an island at the mouth of 
the Kennebec, (1607-8.) Some time elapsed before any 
new expedition was undertaken. Nor would any, it is 
probable, have been undertaken then, but for the active 
agency of John Smith, who, four or five years after his 
return from Virginia, entered the service of the Plymouth 
Company. A careful voyage from the Penobscot to Cape 
Cod impressed him so favorably, that he gave the country 
the name of New England, obtaining for himself the title 
of its admiral, (1614.) But his persevering exertions to 
discharge his office and to colonize his chosen land were 
in vain ; nor was any thing more attempted by the com- 
pany until it was transformed by a new charter into the 



24 PART I. 1492-1638. 

Council of Plymouth for New England, with the right 
to all the territory from the latitude of Philadelphia to 
that of Chaleur Bay, (1620.) 
,, . „ Even then, the Council for New Enorland set on 

> arious ' c 

proprie- foot no colouizatiou of its own. . Its energies 
compa- seemed to be spent in making grants to individuals, 
nies. — some of them its members, — or to associations, 
by whom the settlement of New England was to be 
accomplished. Singular enough, considering that it was 
New England, a large proportion of these subordinate 
agencies was directed to the establishment of what may 
be called a number of lordly domains upon the soil. In 
following this succession of proprietors and of companies, 
we lose sight of the Council for New England. 

One settlement, originally made without a grant 
menrof f^om the couucil, was by much the most important 
Piym- for many years. It was on no large scale. One 
hundred and two passengers in the Mayflower 
landed at a place already called New Plymouth, (Decem- 
ber 11, 1620.) They were a band of Puritans, whose 
extreme principles had led to their exile, first from Eng- 
land to Holland, (1608,) and then from Holland to 
America. Obtaining a grant from the London Company, 
they set sail for Virginia, but landed to the north of that 
province, in the limits of New England. The year follow- 
ing, they procured a patent from the Council for New 
England, (1621.) But not in their own name ; the grant 
being made to one of a company of London merchants, 
with whom they had formed a partnership before saihng 
to the west. The Londoners, holding their title under the 
council, thus constituted a sort of company within a com- 
pany. Nor was it until after six years, marked by many 
troubles and by many injuries, that the colonists extricated 
themselves from this twofold dependence by the payment 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 25 

of a large sum to the London merchants, (1626.) The 
difficulties with the merchants had been the least of the 
trials of the Plymouth settlers. Half of the one hundred 
and two of the Mayflower died within a year from the 
landing. " In the time of most distress," says the histo- 
rian of the settlement, Governor Bradford, " there were 
but six or seven sound persons." After disease came 
want ; " all their s^ictuals were spent, and they were only 
to rest on God's providence ; at night not many times 
knowing where to have a bit of any thing the next day." 
When a ship load of fresh immigrants arrived nearly two 
years after, " the best dish they," the earlier comers, " could 
present their friends with, was a lobster or a piece of fish, 
without bread or any thing else but a cup of fair spring 
water." Nevertheless the Pilgrims, as they were called, 
sustained and extended their settlements. A second patent 
from the council was obtained for the country near the 
mouth of the Kennebec, where a trading post was presently 
established, (1628.) The whole extent of settlements, 
both at Plymouth and on the Kennebec, was included in 
a third patent, two years afterwards, (1630.) 

One who reads the history of these times with- 
tinction ^^^ personal or national prepossessions will not 
in his- fij^(j any thing of a very extraordinary character 
in the settlement of Plymouth. They who came 
thither, braving the perils of the unknown sea and the 
unknown shore, were but doing what had been done by 
their countrymen in Virginia, and by others in other settle- 
ments in America. Solemnity is certainly imparted to 
their enterprise by the reflection that they came to main- 
tain the doctrines and laws which their consciences ap- 
proved, but which the authorities of England proscribed. 
Yet the Huguenots of Carolina had done the same thing 
more than half a century before. The true distinction 
3 



26, PART I. 1492-1638. 

of the Puritans of Plymouth is this, that they relied 
upon themselves, that they adopted their own institutions 
and developed their own resources, of course in a feeble, 
but not the less in a manly manner. Before they landed, 
they " covenant and combine themselves together into a 
civil body politic, to enact such just and equal laws as shall 
be thought most convenient for the general good of the 
colony." The state thus founded was continued in entire 
independence of external authority, except in so far as its 
territory was held by grants from the Council for New 
England. 

Political The political forms of Plymouth were singu- 
forms. larly simple. Every settler admitted to the privi- 
leges of the colony, and not an apprentice or a servant, 
was a freeman, a member of the body by which all 
affairs were administered or directed. An assembly of 
a representative character was not held for nearly 
twenty years, (1639.) Out of the freemen a smaller 
body was takeu to exercise the every-day functions of 
government. It was composed merely of the governor 
and his assistants, or council, of which he was simply 
the presiding otficer with a double vote. The first gov- 
ernor was John Carver ; the second was William Brad- 
ford, who retained the post, with a few interruptions, for 
thirty-six years. It marks the simplicity, not to say the 
distastefulness, of these offices, that there should have 
been a law subjecting a man not having served the pre- 
ceding year, and yet refusing to be governor, to a fine 
of twenty pounds, equivalent to a much larger amount 
in our day. A military body was headed by Miles Stan- 
dish, the hero of the settlement. 

But the spirit beneath these forms is of more 

Spirit. . * 

importance than the forms themselves. The ear- 
nest faith of the Puritans was at once the source from which 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. ^f 

the colony sprang, and the strength by which it grew. But 
it was also the principle of harsh and arbitrary measures. 
It transformed the exiles into persecutors, many of whose 
companions found themselves again exiles, escaping from 
the mother country only to be thrust out from the sandy 
coasts and chilly hovels of the colony. 

Meantime New England was portioned out un- 

Grants, . 

Attempt der various names. The secretary of the council, 
at gen- Jq}iji Masou, Called his errant Mariana, stretching 

eral gov- 70 ? o 

erament. from Salcm Rivcr to the head of the Merrimac, 
(1621.) The lands between the Merrimac and the 
Kennebec were conveyed under the name of Maine, in a 
grant to Mason in company with Sir Ferdinaudo Gorges, 
(1622.) The first settlement, however, in that neighbor- 
hood was made by some fishermen on the shore near 
Monhegan Island, beyond the Kennebec, and therefore 
independently of Mason and Gorges, (1622.) The next 
year the sites of the later Portsmouth and Dover were 
occupied, each under a separate association, to which the 
two proprietors had partially transferred their claims, 
(1623.) Meanwhile the Council for New England had 
been attempting great things, commissioning Captain Fran- 
cis West as " Admiral of New England," Captain Robert 
Gorges as " Governor General," and the Rev. William 
Morrell as " Overseer of Churches." The last named was 
a clergyman of the English church. " He had," says 
Governor Bradford, " I know not what power and author- 
ity of superintendency over other churches granted him, 
and sundry instructions for that end, but he never showed 
it or made any use of it." " It should seem," says the 
stout Puritan, " he saw it was in vain ; he only spoke of 
it to some here at his going away." The governor general 
and the admiral cut no better figure. The council, as if 
disgusted by the fate of their general officers, surrendered 



28 PART I. 1492-1638. 

their domains to chaos. New grants, within as well as 
without the limits of those already made, were issued by 
the council, or by members of the council ; the whole 
coast from Plymouth to the Penobscot being cut up with 
dividing and intersecting lines. 

Order began to be evolved. The partnership 
Hamp- between Mason and Ferdinand© Gorges being dis- 
and New ^^^^^^j (1629,) cach obtained a new grant for him- 
Somer- self. Mason gave the name of New Hampshire to 
the tract between the Merrimac (afterwards be- 
tween the Salem) and the Piscataqua Rivers. The dis- 
trict between the Piscataqua and the Kennebec was called 
New Somersetshire by Gorges, who donned the title of 
Governor General of New England. " There was a con- 
sultation had," writes an Englishman at the time, " to send 
him thither with a thousand soldiers." The scheme of a 
general government was not yet abandoned, (1634.) 
- A company of Puritans in England had some 

Ann and time before acquired a fishing station of the Plym- 
*^™' outh colony at Cape Ann, (1624.) Thither a few 
settlers were sent; Roger Conant being soon after invited 
to be the gov^ernor, (1625.) He was a man of great 
spirit, who had found it prudent to leave Plymouth in 
consequence of his too hberal Puritanism, and who now 
sustained the puny colony on the cape by his courage and 
his judgment. Perceiving a much better position at Naum- 
keag, he removed thither, (1626,) and there held the 
ground with a few dispirited adherents until, in accord- 
ance with his recommendation, nearly a hundred settlers 
arrived from England under the conduct of John Endicott, 
(1628.) Endicott took the direction of the colony as the 
agent of a new company, by which a grant of the tract 
between the Charles and the Merrimac Rivers had been 
procured from the Council for New England. The name 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 29 

of Naumkeag was changed to Salem in the ensuing year, 
(1629.) 

New associates having joined the enterprise, — 
of M^sa- John Winthrop, Isaac Johnson, and others of note 
chusetts from Boston, — a royal charter was procured for 
" The Governor and Company of the Massachu- 
setts Bay in New England." A governor, deputy govern- 
or, and eighteen assistants or councillors, were appointed 
to hold monthly courts and to conduct the affairs of admin- 
istration. The members at large were to be convened 
from time to time in general courts, by which officers were 
to be chosen and laws enacted, subject only to the condition 
of conforming to the laws of England. No mention of 
religion or of religious liberty was made, it being out of 
the question for the Puritans to obtain the formal recog- 
nition of their own faith. Thus going behind the grant 
of the Council for New England, the Massachusetts associ- 
ation obtained an independent position, in the same char- 
acter that belonged to the council itself, as an English 
corporation. But four months after the date of the char- 
ter, it was decided, on the proposal of the governor, 
Matthew Cradock, " to transfer the government of the 
plantation to those that shall inhabit there," (July 28, 
1629.) This at once changed the corporation from an 
English to a colonial one. 

Reenforcements had been sent out to the colony 

Boston. '' 

at Salem, (1629.) But the accessions to the list 
were now so great as to suggest the increase of settlements. 
The appointment of John Winthrop as governor, under the 
transfer of the charter to the colony, was followed by " the 
great emigration," so called, of about one thousand, who, 
after tarrying at Salem and the neighboring Charlestown, 
voted " that Trimountain shall be called Boston," (Septem- 
ber 7, 1630,) and there took up their position at the centre 
3* 



36 PART I. 1492-1638. 

of Massachusetts Bay. The first General Court was held 
soon after, (October 19,) and from that time Boston took 
the lead of Massachusetts and of New England. It was 
entitled to do so in Massachusetts by the rank, the educa- 
tion, and the devotion of its settlers. It was entitled to do 
so in New England as the chief place in Massachusetts, 
then, and for many years after, the most important of all 
the English settlements. 

The new colony grew apace. All around Bos- 

Increase .' o r 

and inde- tou there Sprang up towns, some on spots previous- 
pen ence. j^ occupied by individuals or by parties, but many 
in districts hitherto unvisited. Each new settlement con- 
tributed to the increase and the independence of the colony. 
So independent in some respects did its position become, 
that the Council for New England, sometimes as a body 
and sometimes through its individual members, began to 
dread and to resist the rising power. There was full 
enough in the attitude of the Massachusetts colonists to 
warrant the suspicion of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, "that 
they would in short time wholly shake off the royal juris- 
diction of the sovereign magistrate." 

Charter ^^ colony certainly had ever been endowed with 
govern- similar powers. Charter government had hitherto 
been confined to companies in England. It was 
first inspired with all its vitality in Massachusetts. As the 
government, not merely of a corporation, but of a state, it 
invested its holders with an authority independent of all 
besides a mere allegiance to the crown and the law of the 
mother land. The officers elsewhere, as in the royal prov- 
ince of Virginia, appointed in England, were here elected 
on the spot, and by those over whom they were to preside. 
Governor, council, and assembly, all belonged to and pro- 
ceeded from the freemen. With them resided every form 
of authority, save only the distant and the indefinite shapes 
of royal and parliamentary supremacy. 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 31 

It by no means followed that the government 
priuci- was a liberal one. Whatever it might appear to 
^^^' be in the abstract, its operation was rigidly con- 
trolled by Puritan principles. These narrowed its sphere 
and stiffened its action. An early vote declared no one a 
freeman under the charter who was not a church member, 
(1631.) As but a small proportion of the inhabitants were 
church members, there were less freemen than non-free^ 
men. The privileges of the charter being thus restricted 
to the pale of the church, the church and the state became 
virtually one. The elders of the church, clerical and lay, 
were as much magistrates as the magistrates themselves. 
External Such a systcm favored the independence of the 
relations, colony in Its relations with the mother country; 
indeed, in all external relations. It made the colony 
strong in itself, relying upon its own resources, providing 
for its own wants. The villages of Massachusetts were 
hardly begun, its fields were hardly turned up by the 
plough, when the General Court " agree to give four hun- 
dred pounds towards a school or college," (1636.) This 
was subsequently located at Cambridge, and named after 
its first private benefactor, John Harvard, a clergyman of 
Charlestown, (1638.) The same year of the grant from 
the court, when such a sacrifice for the future must have 
strained the entire colony, the offer of certain noblemen to 
join the settlers, on condition of preserving their hereditary 
honors, was rejected, (1636.) All the while the colony 
was contending against the machinations of its adversaries 
in and out of the Council for New England. The charter, 
threatened again and again, was at length demanded back ; 
but the men of Massachusetts stood firm, and it was spared, 
(1634-38.) 

Internal The internal relations of the colonists were by 
relations, jjq means equally secure. The system that cut 



32 PART I. 1492-1638. 

down the charter itself was not likely to respect the devel- 
opment of the individual. The very members of the 
rulinir class were under the most rijirid restraint. John 
EUot, afterwards the missionary to the Indians, was obliged 
to retract the censures which he passed upon the magis- 
trates for making an Indian treaty without consulting the 
freemen, (1634.) Israel Stoughton, a deputy, who ven- 
tured to write against the pretensions of the magistrates to 
a negative upon the General Court, was forced to ask that 
his manuscript " be burned as weak and offensive," and 
was then excluded from office for three years, (1635.) 
Roger Williams, denying the power of the magistrates 
to compel attendance upon their form of service, or to 
bind the conscience by human laws, was driven into exile, 
(1635.) It marks the spirit of the place, that even Roger 
WiUiams, the professed advocate of religious liberty, should 
have tmnsgressed the very principle which he advocated, 
by forbidding his wife to pray with him because she would 
not join his scission from the church at Salem. These 
were all individual instances. There presently arose a 
party in opposition to the dominant system. It was led by 
a woman, Anne Hutchinson ; but many of the principal 
men united with her in setting up what they termed a 
" covenant of grace " against the " covenant of works " 
upheld by the Puritan rulers. The leaders of the party 
were all banished, (1638.) One cannot wonder that Wil- 
liam Blackstone, an early settler, who first invited the 
Massachusetts emigrants to settle at Boston, should retire 
before them, exclaiming, " I left England because I liked 
not the lord bishops, and now I like not the lord brethren." 
Connec- The Massachusctts people were already emigrat- 
ticut. jjig^ ^ neighboring territory, conveyed by the Coun- 
cil for New England to the Earl of Warwick, passed into 
the hands of Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brook, and others, 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 33 

(1632.) Upon their domain, a party from Plymouth 
established a trading post, (1633,) while another and 
a larger company from Massachusetts founded actual 
settlements at Windsor and Hartford, together called the 
Connecticut colony, (1635.) John Winthrop, son of the 
Massachusetts governor, and afterwards governor of Con- 
necticut, led the first expedition on the part of the proprie- 
< tors, and began a settlement at Saybrook, (1635.) A third 
colony was begun, a year or two later, by emigrants from 
England under the lead of John Davenport and Theophilus 
Eaton, who, intending to settle in Massachusetts, were 
driven by the dissensions of that colony to New Haven, 
(1638.) 

Provi- Connecticut was not the only colony to profit by 

dence the Strifes in Massachusetts. Roger Williams, the 
Rhode exile, began the plantation of Providence, (1636.) 
Island, ^g Q^Q founder of a colony, with the consent of the 
natives, to whom, as well as to his persecuting countrymen, 
he was a faithful friend, Williams deserves a far higher 
fame than he would ever have won as an agitator. He 
was followed by some of the Hutchinson exiles, who began 
a second colony on the northern shore of the island since 
called Rhode Island, (1638.) They, like Williams, ob- 
tained their lands from the natives. 

The Council for New England, with or without 
tion of whose patents so many settlements had been made, 
the coun- ^^^g j^^y^ j^q more. Opposed by the advocates of a 
free fishery and a free trade, it had lately met with 
fresh assaults from those who regarded the churches of 
" Plymouth and of Massachusetts as the offspring of schism 
and of sin. The council was weary of itself. Its efforts 
after a general government of the colonies had miscarried. 
Its grants had ceased to be in demand ; indeed, in an 
honest point of view, there were no more to be made. Its 



34 PART I. 1492-1638. 

members, however, thought diiferently, and having once 
more parcelled out the territory of New England amongst 
themselves, they surrendered their patent to the crown, 
(1635.) 

Thus ended the companies created by the patent 
compa- of Virginia. One, lasting but eighteen years, be- 
gan the single colony of Virginia. The other, con- 
tinuing eleven years more, did not found a solitary settle- 
ment. It saw, however, quite a number of settlements 
made by others under its grants or upon its lands. The 
only office that either company had fulfilled, was to clear 
the way for individual enterprise. This done, both fell, 
and without a regret from any side. 

if n When the Virginia Company came to an end, its 
of New colony was declared a royal province. No such 

'""' ' ' change ensued upon the dissolution of the Council 
for New England. Massachusetts, the chief settlement in 
the territory, was already provided with a royal charter. 
The other settlements were too insignificant to attract legis- 
lation, even if they attracted attention from England. Many 
of them, like Plymouth, were able to govern themselves. 
The rest would be provided for in time. 
Thomas It was plain, however, that the New England 
Morton, eolouics nccdcd some other system than they had 
to establish their relations amongst themselves. An in- 
stance in point occurs in the case of Tiiomas Morton " of 
Clifford's Inn, gentleman," as he called himself. Taking 
the lead of a few settlers encamped at Mount Wollaston, 
near Boston, he gave the hill the name of Mare-Mount, 
of which he styled himself " Mine Host," (1626.) The 
use of the church liturgy and the confidence of the Indians, 
Avhom he employed as his huntsmen, gave great umbrage 
to the neighboring colonists, the more so that he led a fi'ee 
and easy, perhaps a sensual, life upon his mount, and thus 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 35 

attracted numbers from the surrounding settlements. A 
sort of crusade was started by " the chief of the straggling 
plantations," as Governor Bradford of Plymouth describes 
them ; Plymouth, at their request, assuming the lead, and 
sending a party under Miles Standish to take Morton 
prisoner. He was sent to England, (1628.) As he had 
the audacity to return, he was apprehended by the authori- 
ties of the infant colony of Massachusetts Bay, whose char- 
ter covered his territory. The court ordered him to " be 
set in the bilboes, and after sent prisoner to England," his 
goods being seized and his house burned for wrongs, it was 
alleged, that had been done to the Indians, (1630.) After 
appealing to the privy council by petition, and to the Eng- 
lish nation in a work called " New English Canaan," Mor- 
ton returned again to encounter fine and imprisonment, 
(1643,) and to die in poverty, (1646.) Whatever were 
his faults, whether " the lord of misrule," as his adversaries 
represented him, or not, Thomas Morton was certainly 
handled by his fellow-colonists in a way the most opposed 
to justice and to peace. 

Section III. — Proprietors. 1630 to 1638. 

-, . . A new form of grant appears. Hitherto, the 
Mary- individual obtaining possession of territory pro- 
cured it, like Mason or like Gorges, from a com- 
pany to whose authority the acquisition was subject. It 
was by a patent from the crown that Sir George Calvert, 
Lord Baltimore, was made "lord and proprietor" of a 
tract between the Potomac River and the latitude of Phila- 
delphia, (1632.) To this he gave the name of Maryland, 
and thither, to a settlement named St. Mary's, his son, after 
the father's death, led a band of two hundred, (1634.) 
Thus was constituted a proprietary government. The 



36 PART I. 1492-1638. 

proprietor held an authority that was supreme, save 
etary gov- in its Subordination to the sovereign from whom it 
eminent, gj^^^^ted. He directed the administration and the 
legislation of the colony, appointing the executive officers, 
the governor, especially, as his representative, and control- 
ling the proceedings of the colonists in their assemblies. 
To him likewise belonged the quitrents, or taxes upon 
occupied lands, in addition to the general taxes for the 
support of the government. The colonists, on their part, 
— that is, " the freemen of the province," — were to have 
their assembly, in which their " advice, consent, and appro- 
bation " might be given or withheld in relation to the 
course of the proprietor. 

Religious -^^ with Other settlements, so with Maryland, 
liberty, there are exaggerations in some of the histories. 
A vast deal of fine writing has been devoted to the magna- 
nimity with which the Maryland charter provided for 
religious liberty. The instrument makes no mention of 
the subject, or of the establishment of religion, except to 
leave the matter to the proprietor, subject on this point, as 
on others, to the laws of England. The Calvert family, 
being Roman Catholic, could not make their own faith 
paramount, nor would they, perhaps, have done so, even if 
they could. They wanted settlers of all creeds, whose 
numbers and whose energies alone could give real value 
to their domains. It was simply a matter of policy, there- 
fore, with the proprietary family, to let the question of 
religion rest exactly where it was left by the charter. We 
may hope that they were not merely politic enough, but 
generous enough, even in an age which knew little of 
generosity, to throw open their province to Christians, with- 
out any limitation in favor of one branch or of another. 
Trou- The colony, young as it was, fell into troubles. 

^^^- Its assembly began to make laws without waiting 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 37 

for the proprietor's legal initiative. At the same time, 
both proprietor and assembly were involved in disturbances 
excited by a member of the Virginia council, William 
Clayborne. Virginia herself took it ill that her territory 
should be invaded even by royal grants. Clayborne con- 
ceived his rights to be assailed, inasmuch as he, individual- 
ly, had established trading posts within the Maryland limits. 
Taking up arms against the colony, he was overpowered, 
and sent back to Virginia, (1635.) 

Other proprietors, besides those of Maryland, 
proprie- wcrc in the field. Sir Robert Heath, attorney 
'■"■"■ general to Charles I., obtained the patent of a 
vast region on the south of Virginia, and as far as the Gulf 
of Mexico. This he called Carolana, (1630.) Another 
tract, called New Albion, and including the present New 
Jersey, was conveyed in an irregular instrument from the 
viceroy of Ireland to Sir Edward Plowden, as an earl 
palatine, (1636.) These were but grants, not settlements, 
yet significant of the growing pretensions of England to 
the soil of America. 

No other nation of Europe, it need hardly be 
Sn!^"' suggested, had made any settlements, individual, 
English associated, or national, at all comparable to those 
mo ives. ^^ ^^^^ English. Nor had there been any such 
definite purposes of settlement, separate from mere adven- 
ture, on the part of any other race. The English settler 
was emphatically a settler, rather than a treasure seeker or 
a conqueror, a missionary or a trader. Not that he shrank 
from other enterprises, but that his main motive was to 
gain a home, and an abiding one, in the western world. 
Acting in harmony with this were the desire to escape from 
oppression or from want, the yearning after a new faith or 
a new life, the various impulses that have appeared, it is 
4 



38 PART I. 1492-1638. 

hoped, in the preceding pages. That there v/ere baser 
instincts tending to the same end has also appeared. 
institu- The institutions of the Enghsh were favorable to 
tioiis. their purposes as settlers. The subjects of a limit- 
ed monarchy, they brought with them the habits and the 
laws of comparative freemen. That they might have been 
freer in their political principles, needs not to be suggested 
anew. But in their varying charters, in their varying 
magistrates and tribunals, even in the least liberal, the 
English colonists possessed privileges to which neither the 
Frenchman nor the Spaniard in their neighborhood had 
ever actually aspired. 

Circum- Of an equally encouraging description were the 
stances, circumstances of the English. The seaboard was 
theirs, all at least that they could immediately occupy. 
The portion which they possessed was partly in the north 
and partly in the south, provided, therefore, with the re- 
sources of both regions, at the same time that it was not 
exposed either to the indulgence of the extreme south or 
to the privation of the extreme north. Within opened an 
interior region rich in its streams, its fields, its forests, its 
mountains; without lay the broad sea, accessible at a hun- 
dred harbors. Whatever mere position could effect was 
promised to the English settlers. 

English As yet they had but begun the work before 
names, them. Their humble towns on the coast, their 
humbler villages and hamlets in the country, gave small 
token of their destinies. But the names of their territories 
were full of strength and of grandeur. There was New 
Albion on the Pacific, New Albion on the Atlantic. There 
was the land of Queen Elizabeth — Virginia ; there wad 
the land of the nation — New England. 



CHAPTER V. 

Dutch Settlements. 

Group of A LATER gi'oup of settlers comes forward. It is 
traders, composed iiot SO much of settlers, however, as of 
traders, who, to carry out their commercial operations, lay 
the foundations of a state, and give it the name of their 
nation. 

Spirit in The spirit of the preceding half century in Hol- 
iioihind. i^j^^ Yiad been that of a people rescuing themselves 
from a foreign dominion and building up a power of their 
own. Europe has nothing so brilliant upon- its records at 
the time as the war of independence which the Nether- 
lands waged, and waged successfully, against Spain. It 
might have been argued that such a nation would have 
surpassed all others in America. 
^ . ,, , But it was not so. The Dutch came late upon 

Dwindled 

in Ameri- the sccnc. They came, moreover, not with the 
spirit or the lav/ of their nation so much as with 
those of the commercial companies by which they were 
sent out or controlled. The story of their settlements is 
therefore an anomaly in the history of American coloni- 
zation. The fire of the mother-land languishes in the 
colony. It is because the colony is not a national, but a 
corporate settlement, from its beginning to its end. 
„ ^ , The very year in which Holland became inde- 

Ilndson s -^ -^ 

voyage, pendcut, (1609,) Henry Hudson, an Englishman 
in Dutch employ, sailed in search of a northern passage to 

(39) 



40 PART I. 1492-1638. 

the Pacific. Shut out by the ice from his projected course, 
he steered westward, and reaching the coast of Maine, 
cruised southward as far as Virginia, giving to Cape Cod, 
on the way, the name of New Holland. As he returned 
towards the north, he discovered Delaware Bay, and entered 
the River of the Mountains, as he called the stream since 
known by his own name. These waters, first visited, per- 
haps, by Cabot in the English, (1498,) then by Verrazzano 
in the French, (1524,) and then by Gomez in the Spanish 
(1525) service, were now more thoroughly explored by 
Hudson. As their discoverer, he returned to Holland, and 
as their possessors, the Dutch sent out various vessels to 
trade with the natives and to claim the shores, (1610-13.) 
The earliest of the Dutch posts was on the Island 

Company ^ 

of New of Manhattan, (1613.) There the first craft of Eu- 
land**"^ ropean construction was built and launched by 
Adrian Block, whose ship had been destroyed by 
fire. In his Manhattan vessel, appropriately called the Rest- 
less, Block went through Long Island Sound as far as Cape 
Cod, then, leaving his name for Block Island, he returned 
home, (1614.) The prospects of the new country looking 
well, the association of Amsterdam and Hoorn merchants, 
by whom Block and other explorers had been employed, 
gave it the name of New Netherland, and applied to the 
States General for protection in their enterprise. This 
was obtained, in the shape of an exclusive right for three 
years " to visit and penetrate the said lands lying in Ameri- 
ca between New France and Virginia, whereof the coasts 
extend from the fortieth to the forty-fifth degrees of lati- 
tude ; " that is, from Delaware to Passamaquoddy Bay. 
The association, taking the name of the United New Neth- 
erland Company, set themselves to work, (1614.) A fort 
was built at Manhattan ; a fortified trading post was estab- 
lished up the river, near the present Albany, (1615.) 



DUTCH SETTLEMENTS. 41 

Meanwhile the little Restless, commanded by Cornelius 
Hendricksen, was exploring the coast to the southward, 
and ascending the Delaware, then called the South River, 
to distinguish it from the North, or Prince Maurice's River, 
as the Hudson was variously styled. 

The monopoly of the New Netherland Com- 

Proposals 

of the pany expiring without their being able to ob- 
piymouth ^^^^ -^.g ^gjjg^al, otlicr parties entered into the 

Puritans. ' ^ 

trading operations of which the colony was the 
centre. But the old company, or rather a portion of its 
members, retained a sort of vantage ground. To them, ac- 
cordingly, the Puritan exiles in Holland — the same who 
settled Plymouth — addressed their proposals of emigrating 
to New Netherland. The party to whom the application 
was made petitioned the States General that the Puritans 
might be taken under the national protection, in which 
case the petition asserts " upwards of four hundred families " 
" from this country and from England " would settle in the 
Dutch colony, (February, 1620.) The prayer of the pe- 
titioners was refused. 

West In- '^^^ New Netherland Company had ceased to 
diaCom- be a body in which the nation confided. An old 
pany- project of a West India Company was revived, and 
a corporation of that name established, with power, not 
only over New Netherland, but the entire American coast, 
(1621.) It was some time before the company began its 
operations ; but when it did begin, it was evidently in 
earnest, (1623.) 

Walloon Ten years had elapsed since the trading post on 
colony. Manhattan had been occupied, and there were still 
none but trading posts in all New Netherland. Not a 
colony worthy of the name as yet existed. The only plan 
that had ever been formed of establishing one came from 
the Plymouth Puritans. It is a singular coincidence that 
4 * 



42 PART.. I. 1492-1638. 

the first colony to be actually established was one of ref- 
ugees, like the Puritans, from persecution. These were a 
band of Protestant Walloons, from the Spanish Nether- 
lands, who, after applying unsuccessfully to the London 
Company of England, enlisted as colonists under the West 
India Company of Holland. Sent out in the first expe- 
dition of the company, they settled at Waal-bogt, or Wal- 
loons' Bay, on the western shore of Long Island, (1623- 
24.) Their settlement stands out amidst the surrounding 
trading posts as the one spot of home life in New Nether- 
land. But it was a feeble settlement, and feeble it con- 
tinued, although recruited by fresh fugitives from beyond 
the sea. 

JNew Am- The company was by no means absorbed in its 
>terdam. "VYalloons. On the contrary, it was erecting forts, 
one on the North River, another on the South, and pres- 
ently, the chief of all on Manhattan Island, (1626.) Pur- 
chasinsf the entire island from the natives for no less than 
twenty-four of our dollars, Peter Minuit, the company's 
director, commenced the erection of a fort, with some sur- 
rounding dwellings, to which the name of New Amster- 
dam was subsequently applied. This settlement was to 
New Netherland the same principal place that it has since 
become as New York to the United States. Other forts 
were gradually raised ; that of Good Hope upon the Con- 
necticut, and that of Beversrede upon the Schuylkill, 
(1633.) The dominion of the company was in force upon 
the soil not only of New York, but of Connecticut, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, and all within ten 
years of its fii*st operations. 

But upon this vast surface the company's settle- 
ments were as dots. Several of them, indeed, had 
been obliterated, and of those that remained, hardly one 
besides New Amsterdam was any thing more than a sta- 



DUTCH SETTLEMENTS. 43 

tion for trade. New Amsterdam itself was only a com- 
mercial settlement. Other posts of the same character had 
been begun, but the colony, as a Avhole, was m a languish- 
ing condition ; the company, of course, being disappointed 
in their expectations of rich returns. To advance their 
interests, they offered a slice of territory and the title of 
patroon to any one who, within a given period, would 
settle a given number of colonists upon lands bought of the 
natives, (1629.) This regard for the Indians was not the 
only proof of liberality in the patroon system, as it may be 
styled. The support of a clergyman and a schoolmaster, 
with that of a " comforter for the sick," was especially en- 
joined as one of the conditions to be fulfilled by the pa- 
troons. But mixed up with the more generous provisions 
were others of a very opposite nature. The fur- trade, 
the great attraction of New Netherland, was reserved ex- 
clusively to the company. Pain of banishment was to de- 
ter the colonists from "making M^oollen, linen, or cotton 
cloths." " As many negroes as can be conveniently pro- 
vided " were promised to the Dutch settlers. All the while, 
the patroons were constituted a class of feudal lords, as 
threatening to their superiors in the company as to tlieir 
inferiors in the colony. Large purchases were made by 
individuals, (1G29-31,) and some settlements were attempt- 
ed, the chief being those of Rensselaerswyck, near Albany, 
Pavonia, opposite Manhattan Island, and Swaanendael, on 
the Delaware. Some of these reverted to the company ; 
some disappeared. 

English Spain and France, as we have read, had their 
claims, pretensions to the soil of New Netherland. But 
the only power to dispute the Dutch possession was Eng- 
land. Tradition asserts that the same Captain Argal who 
destroyed the French settlement in Maine visited the huts 
on Manhattan Island, as he was returning to Virginia, and 



44 PART I. 1492-1638. 

compelled the few Dutchmen whom he found there to ac- 
knowledge the English supremacy, (1613.) This is un- 
certain ; but it is certain that when the New Netherland 
Company appealed to the States General in behalf of 
the Plymouth Puritans, they represented the danger of 
the colony's being surprised by an expedition sent to sup- 
port the claims of England, (1620.) The Council for New 
England was soon engaged in appealing to the Privy 
Council against what they deemed to be an invasion of 
their territory. The appeal was received, and an order 
of inquiry into the circumstances went to the British 
ambassador in Holland. He replied that there was as yet 
no Dutch colony upon the soil, (1621.) But as time 
passed, and colonies were founded, the suspicions of the 
English, both in England and in America, were revived. 
A correspondence, opened by Peter Minuit, director of 
New Amsterdam, with William Bradford, governor of New 
Plymouth, stirred the Englishman to ask that the Dutch 
should trade no more in his neighborhood ; and further, 
that they should clear their title to trade or to settle in any 
part of the country at all. No wonder that Minuit applied 
to the company in Holland for forty soldiers, (1627.) On 
his voyage home, a few years later, Minuit and his ship 
were detained on touching at Plymouth in England, and 
to the remonstrance of the Dutch embassy, the British 
ministry formally opposed the title of Great Britain to 
New Netherland, (1632.) It was soon after that the 
English settlements in Connecticut began to crowd upon 
the fort of the Dutch, (1633-38,) while a direct invasion 
of Delaware was made from Virginia, (1635.) This was 
repelled ; but the soil of Connecticut could not be retained. 
Trade of '^^^ colony was Still a colony of traders. No 
the coio- generous views, no manly energies, were as yet 

By. 

excited amongst its inhabitants or its rulers. From 



DUTCH SETTLEMENTS. 45 

the slave to the colonist, from the colonist to the patroon, 
from the patroon to the director, and even from the direct- 
or to the company, there was little besides struggling for 
pecuniary advantages. It was esteemed a great era in the 
colony when, after various dissensions, its trade was nomi- 
nally thrown open. But the percentages to the company 
were such as to prevent any really free trade, (1638.) 



CHAPTER VI. 

Swedish Settlements. 
Last of all to claim a share as a nation in qui 

Idea of o m r» 

Gusta- territory were the Swedes. Their far-sighted and 
vus Adoi- large-hearted king, Gustavus Adolphus, the champi- 
on of the Protestant cause m Europe, caught up the 
idea of supporting the same cause in America. " It is 
the jewel of my kingdom," he wrote just before he died, 
concerning the settlement that was yet to be, (1632.) 

The jewel of Gustavus received its setting from 
stiern ^^^® regent of his infant daughter Christina, the 
calls in ChanccUor Oxenstiern. With the same loftiness of 

Germany. . . i n i r. 

View, — prepanng a state that was to be ot benent to 
" all Christendom," — Oxenstiern invited and obtained the 
cooperation of Protestant Germany, (1G34.) The Swedish 
\Yest India Company was to be the instrument by which 
the north of Europe, as well as Sweden, was to be linked 
to America. It was a design of greater ends and of broad- 
er motives than had as yet been formed for the new 
world. 
r -suits -^^^^ *^^^ results bore no proportion to the plans. 

It was not to be expected that such colonists as 
could be found in Sweden would embrace the same wide 
objects as their regent or their king. They would enlist 
only in an enterprise that promised personal as well as 
national returns. Some years passed before any settlement 
was attempted, and then a colony of only twenty-four, and 

(46) 



SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS. 47 

these chiefly transported convicts, was established at Fort 
Christina, near the present Wilmington in Delaware, 
(1638.) The territory, which was purchased of the In- 
dians, extended on either side of the fort, along the western 
shore of Delaware Bay, and up the Delaware River as far 
as Trenton, under the name of New Sweden. 
Opposing To this the Swedes had been guided by Peter 
claims. Minuit, lately of New Netherland. His recom- 
mendation of lands previously purchased and occupied, 
though just at this time unoccupied, by his countrymen, 
involved the Swedish colony in immediate difficulties. A 
remonstrance from the governor of New Netherland against 
the invasion of his province was supported in Holland by 
the seizure of a Swedish vessel touching at a Dutch port 
on its way home. The English had their pretensions like- 
wise to the lands appropriated by the new colony. On 
each side were conflicting claims. With feeble numbers 
and with scanty supplies, the Swedes would find it difficult 
to keep their New Sweden. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Indian Races. 

European The roU of European races establishing them- 
races. sclves independently upon our soil was filled up 
by Spain, France, England, Holland, Sweden, and, with 
Sweden, Germany. After the Swedish colony of 1638, 
no national settlement was made by any nation not already 
upon the scene. 

Indian It IS time, therefore, to take an account of the 

races. raccs that occupied the country before any of those 
from Europe entered upon their possessions. The share 
of the Indians in our history endures, though their share 
in our territory wastes away. 

The idea of Columbus that he had merely redis- 

Names •' 

andnum- covcred India gave the name of Indians to the 
existing inhabitants of the continent. Within the 
limits of our country they were divided into four grand 
divisions, as the Algonquins, the Iroquois, the Mobilians, 
and the Dahcotas. The last name includes the tribes 
west of the Mississippi, of which, in the early period, the 
number could not have been at all considerable. Neither 
M^ere the three divisions lying east of the Mississippi by 
any means numerous. The entire number is estimated to 
have been under three hundred thousand, and perhaps not 
above two hundred thousand, at the time of the first Eu- 
ropean settlements. Take from the whole the large part 

which had little or no connection with any of the European 

(48) 



INDIAN RACES. 49 

races, and the Indian population dwindles to small propor- 
tions. It seems strange that so few, and these few savages, 
should have exercised so great an influence upon so many, 
and these many civiUzed. But it will be accounted for 
by a rapid survey of the Indian divisions and the Indian 
resources. 

Aigon- First of the Algonquins. The central tribe of 

quins. ij^jg y^g^ j.^(,Q ^as the Lenni-Lenape, which, occu- 
pying the shores of the Delaware, went by the name of 
Delawares amongst the English. The name of Lenni- 
Lenape, meaning Aborigines, is supposed to mark them as 
the parent stock of the Algonquins. The shoots of the 
race were enormously spread. Starting far up in the north, 
they stretch through New England, as the Abenakis, the 
Pawtuckets, the Massachusetts, the Pokanokets, the Narra- 
gansets, the Pequots, and the Mohegans. Thence they 
may be traced as the Manhattans of New York, the Sus- 
quehannas and the Nanticokes of Pennsylvania and Mary- 
land, the Powhatans of Virginia, and the Pamlicos of South 
Carolina. Towards the west they appear as the Ottawas 
of Michigan, the Miamis of Ohio and Indiana, the Illinois 
of Illinois, and the Shawanoes of Kentucky. Long as this 
list is, it embraces but a portion of the names to be found 
in any full record of the Algonquins. 

Next of the Iroquois. The centre of this divis- 
ion was among the lakes of Western New York, 
where the Five Nations of the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the 
Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas established their 
confederacy. To the west and north-west of the Five Na- 
tions lay their conquests of after years, the lands of the 
Eries, of the Hurons, and of other tribes. The prowess 
or the intrigue of the Iroquois had already subdued the 
great tribe of the Algonquins, the Lenni-Lenape. Far to 
the south, partly in Virginia and partly in Carolina, were 
5 



50 PART I. 1492-1638. 

the Tuscaroras, who, at a later period, migrated to unite 
with their brethren in the north, making six nations of 
the five. 

Lastly, of the Mobilian division. It was broken 

Mobilians. , -sr r> r^ • ^ -\t ^ 

up amongst the 1 amassees oi (jreorgia ; the Musk- 
hogees or Creeks of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida ; the 
Seminoles of Florida, with the inland tribes of Catawbas 
in South Carolina, Cherokees in Georgia and Alabama, 
Choctaws, Natchez, and Chickasaws in Alabama and Mis- 
sissippi. 
^ , There was but one line of wide distinction 

Customs 

aud insti- amougst thcsc various tribes. It separated those 
who lived by the chase alone from those who lived 
not only by the chase, but by agriculture. The former 
class, of course, was the ruder of the two ; yet the customs 
and the institutions of both were much the same. The 
Indian was every where a hunter, every where a warrior. 
K he was any thing else, if he attempted agriculture or 
trade, he seemed to be out of his element. The habits of 
civilized life were a burden, sometimes a destruction to him. 
This is true of all the tribes upon our soil ; the only cus- 
toms to which they took, and by which they held, were 
those of the Avilderness, or, at the best, of the field. Their 
institutions were comparatively advanced. Gathered with 
his kinsmen in a totem or clan, then with other clans in a 
tribe, then perhaps with other tribes in a confederacy, the 
Indian v/as as much a member of a nation as the European. 
Above him were his chiefs, the hereditary sachems of peace, 
and the chosen leaders of war. Their sway and his rights 
rested together on laws, unwritten, but not undetermined. 
The devotion shown to these relations and to these institu- 
tions was that of true patriots, as well as true savages. It 
sustained the Indians throu2;h trials under which more 
civilized nations have much sooner succumbed. Had it 



INDIAN RACES. 51 

been united with a civilization, or rather a religion, by 
which the different tribes could have been blended in one, 
beneath better statutes and holier influences, the Indian 
race would have left no space for the European. 

We can now appreciate the influence of the In- 
upon^the ^^^^ upon the European. Though far from being 
Euro- disciplined, though still farther from being concen- 
trated, the natives oi our soil would not encounter 
an invader without leaving an abiding mark upon him and 
upon his destiny. If not numerous in proportion to the 
vast regions over which they were spread, they were mul- 
titudinous in proportion to the scanty settlements of the 
stranger. He, moreover, was in an untried land, they in 
one which they had occupied from infancy. 

Had there been nothing else to make the Indians 
influence formidable, the treatment which they received would 
upon the have been sufficient. The white men came, if not 

Indian. , , -, . • • , 

to drag the red man into captivity, or to ransack 
his stores, at any rate to occupy his lands. This was done, 
sometimes with and sometimes without the show of justice. 
If any nation deserves credit above another, it is not the 
English, not their Puritan or their Quaker branches, as 
frequently boasted, but the Dutch of New Netherland. 
Nowhere, however, do we find more than the pretence of 
even dealing with the natives. The intercourse thus opened 
was continued in much the same fashion. The Spaniards 
and the French had greater numbers, proportionally, of 
missionaries amongst the Indians ; the French, whether 
missionaries or not, were on comparatively good terms with 
many of the tribes about them. But there are no excep- 
tions to the general course of the Indian from the time that 
he encountered the European. Scorn, treachery, degrada- 
tion, were his portion ; fury and savage warfare were his 
revenge. Of the Indian wars we shall take notice here- 
after. 



62 PART I. 1492-1638. 

African -^.s the Indian drooped beneath the blight of the 
race. stranger, and became a dependant where his fathers 
h^d been free and powerful, he came in contact with 
another race also in dependence upon the European. This 
was the African, introduced into Virginia in the thirteenth 
year of the colony, and into all the other colonies in after 
years. Of little or no account in the eyes of the early set- 
tlers, the slaves of later generations became the most ex- 
citing element in the population. 

The coun- And here, as we have completed the enumeration 
**"y* of the races in the country, it behooves us to give a 
glance at the country itself, varied and wide enough, as it 
must have seemed, for many colonies, or many nations. 
Although as yet the seaboard alone was occupied, the vast 
reaches of the interior, the stretching plains, the penetrat- 
ing rivers, were descried. Most of the early dreams 
concerning wealth and splendor had vanished ; but the 
reality was still full of promise. Fertile and beautiful, a 
land of plenty and of grandeur, it drew increasing numbers 
to its shores, and they who came generally remained 
through life. As far as the future could be secured 
through physical attractions or material resources, it ap- 
peared to be secure. 



PART II. 



THE ENGLISH DOMINION. 



1638-1763. 



5 * (53) 



CHAPTER I. 

The Thirteen Colonies. 
^, , , We left various colonies from Endand scattered 

Old and ^ 

new coio- ovcr the Atlantic coast. Of these, the three princi- 
"*^^^" pal, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Maryland, were 
portrayed with comparative detail. Besides these three, 
several were mentioned as existing in New England, while 
others were projected in New Jersey and Carolina. It is 
the purpose of this chapter to show how the older colonies 
were concentrated, while new colonies were founded and 
extended. 

pivmouth "^^^ oldest colony in New England — that of 
annexed. Plymouth — maintained its independence for seventy 
years. It was then annexed to Massachusetts, (1G91.) 
jiaine an- The name of New Somersetshire was changed to 
nexod. Maine at the same time that Sir Ferdinando Gorges 
was constituted lord palatine of the province, (1639.) His 
deputy presently appeared to hold a general court at Saco, 
(1G40.) The grant to Gorges covered the district from the 
Piscataqua to the Kennebec ; but within a very few years 
one of the numerous patents, previously mentioned as con- 
veying the same soil to different parties, was revived, and 
the land between the Kennebec and the Saco became a dis- 
tinct territory, as Ligonia, (1G43.) Some time later the two 
divisions were both annexed to Massachusetts, (1652-58,) 
then separated, (1665,) then reannexed, (1668,) and at 
length bought of the Gorges heirs by the colony of Massa- 

(55) 



56 PART II. 1638-1763. 

chusetts Bay, (1677.) East of the Kennebec, as far as 
Pemaquid Point, there lay a tract belonging to the prov- 
ince of New York, (1664,) but afterwards united with Mas- 
sachusetts, to which the territory beyond Pemaquid, previ- 
ously occupied by one or two French posts, was also 
attached, (1691.) This eastern region was afterwards de- 
tached by French conquest, (1696,) but was ultimately 
reunited to Massachusetts by treaty with France, (1713.) 
jjg^ Not quite so various were the fortunes of the New 

Uamp- Hampsliire settlements. Those at Dover, Ports- 
mouth, and Exeter,* surrendering themselves to 
Massachusetts, (1641-42,) left nothing but unsettled lands to 
bear the name of New Hampshire. But on the revival of 
the Mason claims to the territory east of the Merrimac, 
New Hampshire was declared in England to be a royal 
province, (1677-79.) The new government had been in 
operation but a short and a troubled period, when the peo- 
ple again united themselves to Massachusetts, (1690-92;) 
and, though again disunited, they were once more rejoined 
to that colony, at least so far as to be under one and the 
fcsame governor for nearly half a century, (1698-1741.) 
Annexation did not prevent disturbance. New Hampshire 
was still the object of suits and controversies on both sides 
of the ocean, while the course of affairs amongst the inhab- 
itants themselves was far from being peaceful. It finally 
became a separate province, (1741.) 

Massachu- Massachusetts Bay was the thriving sister, as we 
eetts. ggg^ amongst the New England family. Her large 
immigrations and her increasing resources gave her the sta- 
bility and the unity which her neighbors lacked. She did 
not go without her trials. At the very time that Plymouth 
and Maine were added to her domains, her independence of 

* Founded by Wheelwright, one of the Hutchinson exiles, in 1638. 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 57 

government was reduced by a change in lier charter, (1691,) 
of which we shall take notice hereafter. The colony con- 
tinued, however, to thrive. 

Connect!- Of the three settlements in Connecticut, two, 
^"*- namely, Saybrook and Connecticut, were early 
united under the latter name, (1644.) For this colony a 
royal charter was afterwards procured by John Winthrop, 
the early governor, (16G2.) The charter included the col- 
ony of New Haven ; but to this community the provisions of 
the instrument were so unacceptable that the union was not 
consummated for two years, nor would it have been so soon 
but for external circumstances, (1665.) While the Con- 
necticut territory was thus rounded off, it was cut into by the 
grant of Long Island to the province of New York, for 
wdiich, likewise, the main land was claimed as far as the 
Connecticut River. But this claim was repelled, 
j^jjo^g The settlements of Providence and Rhode Island 

Island, were united under a single charter procured by 
their founder, Roger Williams, from the crown, (1644.) 
He went a second time to Englajid to obtain its confirma- 
tion during the commonwealth, (1651-52,) being elected 
president of the colony on his return, (1654.) Suspended 
at a later time, the charter was renewed by the royal gov- 
ernment, (1663.) A portion of the territory supposed to 
be covered by the charter, and lying to the west of the 
Narraganset waters, was for a long period separated from 
the colony, under the name of the King's Province, 
(1665-1727.) 

Thus were the various colonies of Nev/ England 
foionies Tcduccd to four — Ncw Hampshire, Massachusetts, 
In New Rhode Island, and Connecticut. A fifth colony, the 

Knijland. 

later State of Vermont, was prepared by the Massa- 
chusetts Fort Dummer, on the site of Brattleboro', (1724,) 
and by th.e New Hampshire grants of townships, Benning- 



58 TART II. 1638-1763. 

ton being the earliest, (1749.) But the four elder colonies 
were all that enter into the list of the thirteen. 

Virginia, the oldest of the colonies, was still the 

Tirginia. ...... r\ i i , i 

most extensive in its limits. Un the north, a bound 
seemed to be set by the grant of Maryland. But on the 
west and the south, Virginia stretched indefinitely, the grant 
of Carolana existing only upon paper. Tlie government of 
the colony was frequently altered. Under the English 
commonwealth, the governors were chosen by the colonial 
assembly, ( 1 652-GO.) An earlier grant of the lands between 
the Potomac and the Rappahannoc to Lord Culpepper and 
liis associates, (1649,) was afterwards revived, and extended 
to a lease of the entire colony for thirty-one years, (1G75.) 
In vain did the Virginia assembly protest against the pro- 
ceeding; in vain did it demand a charter to protect it 
against similar aggressions. Culpepper, buying out his 
associates and obtidning the appointment of governor for 
life, (1G75,) sported his authority in England for several 
years before he made his appearance in Virginia, (1G80.) 
His own disappointment being quite as gi*eat as the discon- 
tentment of liis subjects, his authority over them was sur- 
rendered, and the provincial government was restored, 
(1684.) But, twenty years later, (1704,) a somewhat sim- 
ilar system was established by the appointment of one Eng- 
lish nobleman after another to be govenior ; he, in his turn, 
sending out his lieutenant governor to administer the colony 
in his name. All the while the colony was increasing. Oil 
the south, indeed, its temtories were restricted by the crea- 
tion of new colonies ; but on the Avest its settlers were cross- 
ing the mountains and clearing the farther valleys. 

The adjoining colony of jMarjdand underwent few 

teiTitorial changes. Its vicissitudes, like tliose oi 
Virginia, consisted in its passing and repassing into new 
hands. As Virginia changed from a province^ to a proprie- 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 59 

tary colony, so Maryland changed from a proprietary colony 
to a province. After various disturbances, in none of 
which, however, had the proprietors pov/er been actually 
cast off, a convention of the Protestant settlers deposed the 
proprietary officers, (1689,) and transferred the capital of 
the colony from the Catholic St. Mary's to the Protestant 
Annapohs, (1G94.) As the Protestant fervor in England 
was just then at its height, the proceedings of the colony 
were confirmed by the crown. But the head of the propri- 
etary family in the next generation, Benedict Leonard, 
Lord Baltimore, becoming an English churchman, recov- 
ered the possession of Maryland, (1715.) 

The first of the new colonies amongst the thirteen 
was Carolina. This was the territory included first 
in the limits of Virginia, and then in those of Carolana by 
royal patent. The patentee of Carolana had made no set- 
tlement or grant ; but Virginia had granted at least a por- 
tion of the territory by act of assembly, (1G43.) Another 
portion was occupied by a Massachusetts party settled near 
the mouth of Cape Fear River, on land purchased from the 
Indians, (IGGO.) Without regard to any of these claims, 
eight persons of the highest rank, amongst them the Earl 
of Clarendon, then prime minister, obtained a royal patent 
for all the territory between Albemarle Sound and the St. 
John's River, (1GG3.) A second charter extended the 
northern boundary to Chowan River, and the southern to 
below the Spanish St. Augustine, (1GG5,) while a third 
charter annexed the Bahama Islands to the swollen prov- 
ince, (1G67.) 

North ana It M'as Swollen only on the map. In reality, it 
South. ]j,^j j,^,|j. Qj^j, Qj. ^^^,Q shrivelled settlements. The 

nucleus of ^orth Carolina was a Virginian settlement, not 
included in Carolina until the second charter, (1GG5.) The 
Massachusetts colony formed the nucleus of South Caro- 



60 PART II. 1638-1763. 

lina. Meetirxji; with trials nncl dp>ertion.=;, \hU colony was 
absorbed in, rather than strengthened by, a band from Ear- 
badoes. Other parties came trom England, from Ncav 
P^ngland, and from New York ; with Presbyterians from 
Scotland and Ireland, and Huguenots from France, 
(1671-86.) Of the various settlements that arose, Charles* 
ton took the lead, (1680.) Both North and South Carolina 
were organized as proprietary governments. Such, how- 
ever, were the troubles ensuing beneath these forms, that 
the Assembly of South Carolina, many years later, declared 
the proprietors to have forfeited their dominion. Follow- 
ing up a successful insurrection against the proprietary 
oiRcials by an appeal to England, the South Carolinians 
obtained a provisional royal government, (1719-21.) Some 
time after, the crown, by act of Parliament, bought out 
seven of the eight proprietors, the eighth retaining his prop- 
erty, but not his sovereignty, (1729.) A governor was 
then appointed by the crown for North Carolina, both divis- 
ions being organized as royal provinces. Thenceforward, 
the two pursued their destinies separately. 
j^Tp^y The next year after the grant of Carolina, a new 

York. grant was made in peculiar circuni'^tances. New 
Netherland, though still occupied by the Dutch, was, as 
the province of a nation at war with P^ngland. conveyed 
by Charles II. to his brother James, Duke of York and 
Albany, as proprietor; the limits of the pro\'ince being ex- 
tended from the Connecticut to, and presently beyond, the 
Delaware, (1664.) In addition, the grant covered the 
eastern part of Elaine and the islands to the south and west 
of Cape Cod, which the duke had obtained by transfer to 
him of early grants from the Council for New England.* 
These portions, however, of his domain fell at a later time 

* To Sir William Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling, in 1621-35, 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 61 

bener.th the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, m has been ob- 
served ; while much of the main province went to Connecti- 
cut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delav/are. The seizure 
of the province from the Dutch will be told in another 
chapter. It continued under a proprietary form of govern- 
ment until the accession of the proprietor to the throne of 
England. It then became a royal province ; though, wliile 
James II. ruled, it was more immediately dependent upon 
the royal authority than was customary with the provinces 
in general, (1685-88). 

New Jer- Hardly had the Duke of York obtained the grant 
sey. of his province, when he conveyed that portion of it 
between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers to Sir George 
Carteret and Lord Berkeley, both amongst the proprietors 
of Carolina, (1664.) A few hamlets of Dutch and English, 
who had crossed from Long Island, were already sprinkled 
upon the territory, when the fii'st town under the new pro- 
prietors was founded, and called Elizabethtown, (1665.) 
The province was named New Jersey. As in Maryland 
and Carolina, so in New Jersey, there soon arose dissensions 
between the colonists and the proprietors. The proprietors 
were changed. Berkeley sold out his half to certain Qua- 
kers, who made a settlement at Salem, (1675.) In the fol- 
lowing year, a formal separation of the province took place, 
the settlement at Salem being situate in West, and that at 
Elizabethtown in East New Jersey ; the latter division re- 
maining with Carteret. A treaty with the Indians, under 
the ausi)ices of the Quakers, confirmed the rights of the 
proprietor.^, (1678.) Soon after, a company, of which some, 
but not all, the members vrere Quakers, made the j)urchase 
of East New Jersey, (1682.) A large Presbyterian emi- 
gration from Scotland then took place, (1685.) But the 
growth of the province, as well as that of its western sister, 
was greatly impeded, partly by domestic disputes between 
6 



G2 PART II. 1638-1763. 

the proprietors and the settlers, and partly by contentions 
with the otiicials of New York, who pretended to continued 
jurisdiction over the lands w^iich had been separated I'rom 
that provirice. The Jerseys were finally surrendered by 
their proprietors to the crown, (1702.) They were then 
reunited as a royal province, for many jears, (until 17o<?,)^ 
under the same governor as New York, 
rennsyi- ^^ Quaker, interested in both the Jerseys during 
vania. ^i^g Quaker possession, obtained the grant of the 
adjoining territory on the west. A royal charter constituted 
WiUiam Penn proprietor of a district whose extent, though 
uncertain, might have been described in general as lying 
between New York, New Jersey, and Maryland. To this 
the name of Pennsylvania was given by the crown, (1G81.) 
A grant from the Duke of York conveyed the territories on 
the lower shore of the Delaware to the same proprietor, 
(1682.) Of this wide domain, a variety of settlers, Dutch, 
Swedes, and English, w^ere partially in occupation. To 
take them beneath his rule, the proprietor sent out an agent 
with conciliatory assurances, while, to introduce fresh bodies 
of inhabitants, especially of his own persuasion, he formed 
an association in England. The first fruits were two colo- 
nies, one led by three commissioners, in the year of the 
charter, (1681,) the other conducted by Penn himself in 
the following year, (1682.) A convention of the different 
settlers, new and old, presently accepted the proprietor's 
organization of the province, including the territories of 
both the royal and the ducal grants, with their previous 
inhabitants. Next followed a treaty with the natives, a 
peaceful and a feeble tribe of Indians, whose acquiescence 
in his plans might have been disregarded by Penn without 
any danger, had he not preferred to be just. The town of 
Philadelphia was then begun, and there the first Assembly 
of Pennsylvania was soon convened, (1683.) "With all 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 63 

Penn's care, and all his frames of government, of which 
there was a goodly number, the course of his proprietor- 
ship did not run smooth. Troubles within the colony were 
accompanied by troubles without ; the province being at 
one time taken from him by the English authorities, (1G92 
-1)4.) Even after his restoration, he found matters so diffi- 
cult to manage, that he at length proposed to cede his sov- 
ereignty to the crown, (1710.) He retained it, however, 
and transmitted it to his sons, to be much the same source 
of struggle to them that it had been to him. 

The territories, so styled, of Delaware, oriirinally 

Delaware. ^ f J 

a Swedish, afterwards a Dutch, possession, then an 
appendage of New York, and then again annexed to Penn- 
sylvania, became so far separate from the latter province 
as to obtain a distinct assembly, though continuing to have 
the same governor, (1702.) 

Last of the thirteen was the colony of Georiria, 

Georgia. . p ,. , . , , 

m Toundmg which there were mmgled purposes of 
resistance to the Sj)aniards and the French in the south, 
as well as of relief to the suffering in England. A mem- 
ber of the House of Commons, James Edward Oglethorpe^ 
had been active in proposing and carrying out an inquiry 
into the state of the prisons in Great Britain. The idea 
of rescumg some of the prisoners from a state of degrada- 
tion even greater than they could have fallen into by them- 
selves, and of settling them in a colony, occurred to Ogle- 
thorpe, as a philanthropist, while, as an officer in the royal 
army, he was also sensitive on the point of defending the 
colonial boundaries aorainst the encroachments of other 
powers in America- The purchase of the Carolinas by 
the crown (1729) opened the way to the foundation of a 
colony to the south of the settlements already made ; and 
for this a grant was obtained of the territory between the 
Savannah and Altamaha Rivers, under the royal name of 



G4 PART II. 1G38-1763. 

Georgia, (1732.) The charter conveyed the land and the 
dominion over it, not to colonists, nor yH to proprietors, but 
to twenty-one trustees, who, though subject to the royal over- 
sight, and to the obligations of the English law, were other- 
wise clothed with full power for twenty-one years. A com- 
mon council of thirty-four members, fifteen of whom were 
named in the charter, and the rest appointed by the trustees, 
were to act as a board of administration merely. Tlie colo- 
nial lands, it was further provided, were to be held by feudal 
tenure ; that is, only by male heirs. A universal interest 
■was excited by this novel scheme of colonization. General 
subscriptions poured in to aid the trustees in their half- 
benevolent, half-patriotic plans, while Parliament made a 
national grant of ten thousand pounds. First to enlist 
})ersonally, was a party of more than one hundi*ed, whom 
Oglethorpe himself led to the settlement, which he named 
Savannah, (1733.) Everything seemed to bid fair; tlie 
Indians were conciliated, the colonists were satisfied, the 
nation was all alive with sympathy. Immigrants came 
from afar ; Moravians from Germany ; Presbyterians from 
the northern mountains of Scotland ; the earnest and the 
careless, the peasant and the prisoner, united in one people, 
(1734-3G.) To the generous project of saving the convicts 
of Britain was added the devoted hope of the Moravians 
that the natives of America might be converted. But 
there was a dark side to the scene from the first. The 
character of the colonists, that is, of the main body from 
England, was helpless enough, not to say corrupted enougli, 
to cause great difficulties both to themselves and to their 
trustees. It will be seen hereafter that the military ser- 
vice expected from the colony was pretty much a failure. 
The colony soon became a royal province, (1754-55.) 

Such were the thirteen colonies of England. Spread 
out with indefinite borders and indefinite resources, they lay 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 65 

^^ , like misty points along the Atlantic shore. The 
of the eye that saw them, separate and indistinct, as they 
rose at the beginning, could catch no vision of the 
broad fields and the fruitful vales that were to expand and 
blend together in the future. As we look back ourselves, 
we see few promises of development or of unity in the early 
days of the thirteen colonies. 
6* 



CHAPTER II. 

Colonial Relations. 

The thirteen colonies were the colonies of Ens- 
Races. . 

land. But they were far from being settled exclu- 
sively by Englishmen. The west, the centre, and the 
south of Europe all sent forth emigrants in gi'eater or less 
numbers to people the American shore. Nor did these 
come to the settlements of other nations, to those of the 
Spaniards, the French, the Dutch, or the Swedes, alone, but 
rather to the English colonies, whose praise it is to have 
thus attracted and provided for the stranger. 

As there were different races, so there were dif- 
ferent classes. First came the gentleman, peculiar- 
ly so styled, of various look and of various spirit, according 
to the respective colonies, but every where classitied as of 
'^ the better sort." This order was perpetuated by the law 
of primogeniture, the eldest son receiving at least a double, 
if not more than a double, share of his father's estate. Next 
were the people of " the poorer sort " — the lower orders, as 
their name denotes. But by no means the lowest ; as 
there were others beneath them in the scale. The indent- 
ed servants, or apprentices, constituted a class of temporary 
bondmen. Sometimes exactly what their name suggests, 
too young or too shiftless to be their own masters, the in- 
dented were often men of a higher grade, the adherents, 
in many instances, of a defeated party or of a persecuted 
creed, who, falling into the hands of their opponents, were 

(66) 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 67 

sold for transportation to a market where they could be re- 
sold at a profit. Sueii were the English royalists, taken 
captive by the parliamentary forces; such the Roman 
Catholics, conquered while fighting for their faith in Ireland. 
Such, too, were many of the exiles from the continent. So 
great were the numbers imported as to amount — and 
in time of peace — to fifteen hundred a year in the 
single province of Virginia. The little consideration that 
there was for the class appears in the colonial codes.* 
Lower still, however, were the slaves. The first of this 
class were Indians, captured in wars or taken in snares, 
sometimes bought of their parents, even of themselves. 
Then came the negroes from Africa. These poor creatures 
found little mercy in the colonial statutes. The English 
law recognizing slavery declared the children of a free 
father to be free. But the Virginian code declared a 
child to follow the lot of the mother, (1662.) The law of 
England pronounced it felony to kill a slave. The law of 
Virginia decided it to be none, (1667.)t 
Of the old These classes were confined to no colony, and to 
world. jjQ division of colonies. They existed amongst the 
rigid settlers of the north as well as amongst tlie freer 

* Maimed by a master, the servant is to be set free, (Mass. 1641 ; N. Y. 
1665 ;) but any resistance on the servant's part entails an additional year 
of servitude, ( Va. 170-5.) Such as escape from their bonds are to be given 
up to their masters, or else their value is to be made up by those who 
harbor them, (Va. 1661.) Poorly as the class was rated, there was that 
about them, in their anger, which prompted the Virginians to make a 
" perpetual holiday " of the day on which a conspiracy, detected amongst 
their servants, was to have- been executed, (1663.) 

t The Virginia laws make it alloAvable to kill a fugitive, (1672.) forbid 
the slave at any time to carry arms, (1682,) cut him off from trial by jury, 
(1692,) and prohibit his manumission, except he is transported out of the 
province, (1692,) or except the governor and council deem him worthy of 
his liberty, (1724.) Other codes take much the same tone, without always 
entering into the same details. The most rigid laws were those of South 
Carolina, (1712-50.) 



68 PART II. 1G38-1763. 

and easier plantei's of the south. But they were not of 
colonial creation. They came from the old world, trans- 
planted from its ancient lands to the \argin soil of America. 
If they did not die, it was inevitable that they would take 
root and grow up with renewed luxuriance. 
lustitu- The sketch that goes before shows us that the 
tions be- colonial institutions were not the institutions of all. 
the°free- They belonged to the freemen, so styled, " the bet- 
men, ^gj, sort," with but a portion of " the poorer sort " 
thrown in. Indented servants and slaves, of course, liad 
no part in the political or the social privileges of their supe- 
riors. But besides the bondmen proper, there was a large 
number not bondmen, and yet not freemen by the laws 
of the colonies. " The people," says an early writer on the 
Massachusetts system, " begin to complain they are ruled 
like slaves." Actual restlessness was showing itself. " It 
is feared," says the same writer, " that elections cannot be 
safe there long, either in church or commonwealth, so that 
some melancholy men think it a great deal safer to be in 
the midst of troubles in a settled commonwealth, or in 
hope easily to be settled,* than in mutinies there, so far off 
from succors," (1641.) 

Eni^iish The institutions of the freemen sprang from thf 
law. Enorlish law. How far this extended over the colo- 

o 

nies was a vexed question. One class of jurists or of 
statesmen in England maintained that America was a con- 
quered country, a country wrested from the native or the 
European races whom the English found in possession of it. 
The deduction from this view was, that the institutions of 
the country were at the pleasure of the crown or of the 
Parliament of England. But another class held opposite 
ground, asserting that the colonists were entitled, without 

* Referring to the disturbances in England. 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 69 

any consent or dissent on tlie part of Elngland, to all the 
risfhts of Eno-lishmen, inasmuch as the coiinti-v ^vas a dis- 
covered, not a conquered one. Some persons held an in- 
termediate opinion, denying the notion of conquest, and yet 
denying the inherent claim of the colonists to English 
privileges, making their rights depend on actual grants from 
tlie sovereign povrer. So when the habeas corpus act, pro- 
viding for the issue of a writ to produce the body of a prisoner, 
Avas passed, (1679,) it Avas said not to extend to the colonies, 
because they were not specially mentioned in the bill. A 
similar act, adopted by the Massachusetts General Court, 
was annulled by the crown, (1692.) But the privilege 
was afterwards tacitly, if not explicitly, allowed. The 
liberal system of interpretation slowly prevailing, the Eng- 
lish law was almost universally recognized to be the birth- 
right of the colonies as truly as of the mother-land. 
„ The governments of the colonies were variously 

govern- organized. Those under charters were altogether 
in the hands of the colonists. The charter of Mas- 
sachusetts, indeed, was so far altered in 1691 as to transfer 
the appointment of the governor, lieutenant governor, and 
secretary to the crown, and even to prescribe the conditions 
on which the inliabitants should be admitted as freemen. 
The charters of Connecticut (1662) and Rhode Island 
(1644-63) left the entire administration to the colonists. 
The seven colonies originally under proprietary govern- 
ment — Maryland, the Carolinas, New York, New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, and Delaware — were of course subject to 
the authority of their proprietors, but with many restric- 
tions upon it in favor of the colonists. The Carolinas, 
under the model of John Locke,* and New York, under 

* John Locke, the great philosopher, was employed by the Carolinian 
proprietors to embody their ideas — one cannot but think — rather than 
his own, in what was called " the grand model," or " the fundamental con- 



70 TART II. 1638-1763. 

the arbitrary rule of its ducal proprietor, who allowed no 
Assembly till 1683, were not so ikvorably situated. Penn- 
S}'hania was subjected to claims asserted nowhere else, as 
well as deprived of rights denied nowhere else, by two 
peculiarities in the charter to William Penn ; one, the as- 
sertion of the power of Parliament to tax the colony, the 
other, the omission of the title of the colonists to the rights 
of Englishmen. The record that four of the proprietary 
governments were changed to royal governments, — the 
Carolinas, New York, and New Jersey, — and all at the 
desire of the colonists, bears witness against the institutions 
of which pro})rietors were the chiefs. The royal provinces, 
however, were organized on the same terms as the proprie- 
tary colonies, except that, the king being at the head of 
affairs, the institutions of the provinces were more uniform. 
The number of provinces was seven : the four just men- 
tioned, with the older Virginia and New Hampshire and 
the younger Georgia. 

In some of the colonies, especially those in the 
north, the towns were at the centre of their organi- 
zation. These were the primary bodies in which the colonists 



stitutions." Of the system thus concocted, the primary element was 
property, the scale of colonial dignities being graduated according to the 
possessions of the colonist. Seigniories for the proprietors, baronies for 
landgraves and caciques, colonies for lords of manors, or freeholders, 
were the divisions of the soil. Authority was parcelled out amongst pala- 
tine and other courts for the proprietors, a grand council for them and 
their nobility, and a Parliament for the proprietors, the nobility, and the 
lords of manors. As for those not wealthy enough for eitlier of these classes, 
they were hereditary tenants, or else slaves. The church of the colony 
was to be the church of England, with a certain amount of toleration for 
other creeds. This extraordinary mass of titles and of powers held to- 
gether for just twenty-three years, (1669-1693,) but without ever getting 
into actual operation. It was relinquished by the proprietors at the uni- 
versal desire of the colonists, who naturally preferred the simpler and the 
freer institutions originally reared under the charter. 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 71 

were grouped and trained as freemen. Their workings, 
where they existed, arc written on every page of the colo- 
nial and the national annals. Where they did not exist, their 
places were but poorly supplied by plantations or vestries. 
An instinct, as it may be called, after the establishment of 
towns, led the early legislators of Virginia into curious 
expedients. At one time, the resources of the colony were 
to be brought to bear on making Jamestown a city worthy 
of the name, (1GG2 ;) at another, each county was directed 
to lay out a town of its own, (1680.) At length a new 
capital was founded at Williamsburg, (1698.) 
Assem- Ncxt to the town or its substitute, under every 
biies. form of government as ultimately established, there 
was one and the same body. This was the assembly, the 
same cherished institution to the colony that Parliament 
was to the mother land. At first, in some places, com- 
posed of all the freemen, then placed upon a representative 
basis, and then divided into two houses, one of councillors 
or assistants, the other of representatives or burgesses, the 
assembly exercised all the functions of a legislature, sub- 
ject, of course, to the law and the sovereign of England. 
The House of Representatives, or of Burgesses, as the case 
might be in the diiferent colonies, constituted the popular 
branch, so entirely in some instances as to go by the 
name of the assemblv, leavino- the councillors or assistants 
to appear, what they generally were, the officers of the 
crown. But the assembly was by no means popular, ac- 
cording to modern notions. A large amount of property, 
real or personal, was usually essential as a qualification of 
membership, the very voters being under some conditions 
of the same nature. The sessions were oflen few and far 
between ; in some colonies, and at some periods, not more 
frequent than once in three years, or even more than three. 
An assembly, moreover, would sometimes hold over beyond 



72 PART II. 1638-1763. 

its lawful term, becoming as much of a burJen to the colony 
as it was intended to be an assistance. But when once 
convened, at the proper season and in the proper spu-it, the 
assembly was a tower of strength to its people. 

That which was most variable, not to say most 

Churches. . ^^ . . , ' . 

ineffective, in the colonies, was the very thing that 
should have been most stable and most powerfuL The 
church of Christ was rent with factions. The blessings 
that might have issued from a common church, had it been 
pure and true, have no place in our history. Tlie church 
of England was established in Virginia, Maryland, the 
Carolinas, and Georgia. The Quakers and the Presby- 
terians prevailed in the central colonies ; in the northern, 
the Puritans carried all before them. Such divisions would 
not merely prevent unity ; they would break up liberty. 
Persecu- Am^ongst the harshest provisions of the JMassa- 
tion in chusctts System was that excluding all but church 
chusetts. members from the rights of freemen. Against this, 
Child. chieily, was directed the petition of Dr. Robert 
Child, and six others, some of them of the highest station, 
church membership excepted, in the colony, (1646.) 
Child was a young man, recently arrived in the country 
with the purpose of making some scientific inquiry into its 
mineral resources. At the time of his petition, he was on 
the point of returning to England, but with the idea, ap- 
parently, of coming back to Massachusetts, could he be 
received on equal terms with the freemen of the colony. 
Be this as it may, he and his fellow-petitioners asked for 
admission to the privileges of Massaclmsetts, instead of 
which they found themselves charged with " contemptuous 
and seditious expressions," for which they were arraigned 
and heavily fined. Thus treated, they set about preparing a 
memorial, which Child was to convey to Parliament, and in 
support of which, another document, praying " for liberty 



COLONIAL TtELATIONS. 73 

of conscience, and for a general governor " from England, 
was hastily got up amongst several of the non-freemen of 
Boston and its neighborhood. Only a few signatures to 
this paper were obtained, probably on account of the risk 
which the signers ran ; one of the most active of their 
number being put in irons, on the discovery of the affair 
by the magistrates. Child himself, and some of his fellow- 
memorialists, were also seized ; their papers were examined, 
and their persons detained in custody until after the ship 
in which they intended to take passage for England had 
departed. A copy of their memorial reached London, but 
was never acted upon. 

" I have done too much of that work already," 

Baptists. . "^ \ 

John Winthrop, the governor for many years, is 
reported to have said in his last hours, when urged to sign 
an order of banishment against a believer in a diiferent 
church than his own, (1649.) Eat he left others to carry 
out the austerities from which the approach of death might 
well recall a human spirit. Within two years, John Clarke, 
a minister amongst the Baptist exiles of Rhode Island, 
was arrested while preaching in a house at Lynn, (1651.) 
" They more uncivilly disturbed us," said he, " than the 
pursuivants of the old English bishops were wont to do." 
Imprisoned with some of his fellow-Baptists in Boston, 
Clarke did not give way, but demanded the opportunity of 
proving, prisoner as he was, " that no servant of Jesus 
Christ hath any authority to restrain any fellow-servant in 
his worship, where no injury is offered to others." The 
answer of the magistrates was, " Fined twenty pounds, or to 
be well whipped." One of his comrades escaped with a 
smaller line, but another was whipped, while two persons 
who showed compassion upon him were themselves arrested 
and fined. Clarke, after paying his fine, would have sailed 
to England. But not allowed even to do this, he made his 
7 



remon- 
strance. 



74 PART II. 1638-1763. 

way to New Amsterdam, where he met with liumaner treat- 
ment, and found the means of crossing the sea. Arrived 
in England, he pnbhshed his " III News from New Eng- 
land," " wherein is declared, that while old England is 
becoming new,* New England is becoming old." " The 
autliority there established," he says, " cannot permit men, 
though of never so civil, sober, and peaceable a spirit and 
life, freely to enjoy their understandings and consciences, 
nor yet to live or come among them, unless they can do as 
they do, and say as they say, or else say nothing ; and so 
may a man live at Rome also," (1G52.) 

Clarke's case appears to have excited attention, 
stairs notwithstanding the late indifference in relation to 
Child and his fellow-petitioners. Such as were 
opposed to the Puritans did not stand alone in con- 
demning their intolerance. One of their own number, an 
early and a distinguished member of the Massachusetts 
Company, wrote to the elders, Wilson and Cotton, in terms 
of sorrowful remonstrance. " It doth not a little grieve 
my spirit to hear what sad things are reported daily of 
your tyranny and persecution in New England, as that you 
fine, whip, and imprison men for their consciences. . . . 
These rigid ways have laid you low in the hearts of the 
saints." Thus wrote Sir Richard Saltonstall, a Puritan, 
but not a persecutor, a lover , of other men's liberty, as 
well as of his own. 

His letter was unheeded. Within a very brief 
of Har period, the first president of Harvard College, 
vardCoi- Hcury Dunster, a clergyman, a scholar, and a 
true man, was tried, convicted, and obliged to 
resign his office, on the charge of being a Baptist, (1654.) 
" The whole transaction of this business," wrote he. '' i* 

* In the time of the commonwealth. 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 75 

such, which in process of time, when all things come to 
matui'e consideration, may very probably create grief on 
all sides ; yours subsequent, as mine antecedent. I am 
not the man you take me to be." In the following year, 
(1655,) the corporation of the college appealed to the 
General Court to pay the amount still due to the deposed 
president, as well as to allow him something additional, " in 
consideration of his extraordinary pains." But so intem- 
perate was the disposition of the authorities, as to refuse 
not only the additional grant, but even tlic actujil balance 
of the president's account. The spirit of wisdom had not 
yet descended either upon Harvard College or upon the 
community by which it had been founded. 

A new class of victims appeared. A few unhap- 

Quakers. ^ ^ . , ^ 

py Quakers — the more unhappy, if guilty of the 
fanatical excesses with which they were charged — came to 
Boston, some of them to brave, all of them to encounter, per- 
secution, (1656.) Brought immediately before the magis- 
trates, they were first conlhied, and then sent away beyond 
the limits of the colony. Laws were at once passed, inflict- 
ing a fine of one liundred pounds upon any master of a 
vessel who brought a Quaker with him, and ordering im- 
prisonment and scourging for any Quaker that might 
appear. This not being deemed enough, a new batch of 
statutes was prepared within the next two years, (1657-58,) 
fining the spectator or the worshipper at a Quaker meeting, 
the host of a Quaker, and threatening the Quaker himself 
with loss of ears, mutilation of tongue, and, finally, if he 
returned after being banished, with death. In these horri- 
ble enactments, almost all New England, except Rhode 
Island, coincided. They did not remain dead letters. One 
of the oldest freemen of the colony, Nicholas Upsall, ac- 
cused merely of kindness to the persecuted, was banished 
for three years, and, on his return, was thrown into a two 



76 PART II. 1638-1763. 

years' imprisonment, (1656-59.) Nor was this the only 
case of the kind. As for the persecuted themselves, they 
■were fined, imprisoned, scourged, and at length hanged. 
(1659-60.) Had it not been for the royal commands that 
these outrages should cease, (1660,) there is no saying how 
far they might have been carried. As it was, the persecu- 
tion continued at intervals, until a fresh order came from 
the king, requiring liberty of faith for all Protestants, 
(1679.) 

The saddest deeds of oppression in Massachusetts 

Witches. . 1 , 1 -r» • 

are yet to be told. It is explicable that the Puri- 
tan authorities should be bitter upon those who opposed 
their institutions or their creeds. But that they should 
raise a hue and cry against those who had no thought of 
opposing them, those against whom no charge could be 
substantiated but that of feebleness, of age, or of deformi- 
ty, seems inexplicable. An English law of older date than 
any existing English colony, (1603,) by which witchcraft 
was declared a capital crime, found a place amongst the 
so-called liberties of Massachusetts, (1641.) Some years 
elapsed before it was enforced, (1656;) nor did it then 
seem to set so well upon the consciences of the rulers as 
to make them desirous of keeping it in operation. A later 
attemj)t at the same sort of thing in Pennsylvania resulted 
in the acquittal of the unfortunate object of ill will, (1684.) 
Wlien all was quiet, and the troubles of witchcraft appeared 
to have subsided forever, there vv^as a sudden swell. A 
witch, so styled and so condemned, was executed at Boston, 
(1 688.) One victim not being enough, others were soon de- 
manded, and found at Salem village, now Danvers. The 
magistrates of the colony had thrown a hundred persons 
into prison, when the governor. Sir William Phips, arrived 
from England to head the persecution. The lieutenant gov- 
ernor, William Stoughton, presided at the judicial tribunals. 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 77 

Behind these official personages, several of the elders or 
ministers, led by Increase and Cotton Mather, father and 
son, urged on the ferocious pursuit. It lasted eight long 
months, devouring twenty victims, torturing many others, 
and threatening a still larger number, when the work of 
blood was arrested, partly by interference from England, 
and partly by accusations directed against some of the per- 
secutors themselves, (1693.) "The Lord be merciful to 
the country," exclaimed Chief Justice Stoughton, on find- 
ing that he could sentence no more as guilty of witchcraft. 
Years later, the letters of Robert Calef, a merchant of 
Boston, who wrote against the fierce delusion of his neigh- 
bors, were burned in the yard of Harvard College by order 
of the president. Increase Mather, (1700.) 
Persecu- ^^^ havc lingered long in Massachusetts. It is 
tion else- there that we find the most striking traces of that 
pcrsecutiiig spirit of which almost every colony had 
its share. New England, with one exception, occupied the 
same ground as its principal colony. New York ordered 
every Roman Catholic priest voluntarily entering the prov- 
ince to be hanged, (1700.) Protestants w^ere likewise visited 
with penalties or with restrictions, unless they submitted to 
the church of England, (1704.) Maryland began by an 
act which proclaimed death to all who denied the Trinity, 
and fine, scourging, imprisonment, and banishment, to all 
who denied " the blessed Virgin Mary or the holy apostles 
or evangelists," (1649.) Long after, the Roman Catholics 
becoming, as has been mentioned, the objects of persecu- 
tion, their public services were forbidden, and their offices 
as teachers, both private and public, were suspended, 
(1704.) Of all the colonies, however, none kept nearer to 
Massachusetts in the race of persecution than Virginia, the 
colony of the English, as Massachusetts was that of the 
Puritan church. A few Puritans, who had found a corner 
7 * 



78 PAHT II. 1638-1763. 

in Virginia, invited some ministers from Massachusetts and 
New Haven. Three came, but were almost immediately- 
warned by the government " to depart the colony with all 
conveniency," (1642-43.) Another Puritan clergyman, 
with many of his persuasion, was banished a few years 
later, (1648-49.) The Puritans being disposed of, the 
Quakers came in for attention. A law inflicted a hundred 
pounds' fine upon the shipmaster who introduced, and 
upon the colonist who entertained, a Quaker, the Quaker 
himself being imprisoned until he gave security that he 
would leave the colony never to return, (1660-63.) Bap- 
tists were provided for in another law, subjecting them to 
a fine, (1662.) Thus the prey upon which the Puritan 
magistrates pounced in the north was assailed by the 
church of England authorities in the south. The same 
spirit, suspicious and oppressive, was at work throughout 
the land. 

Save in Save in one nook, where liberality and confidence 
Rhode prevailed. In Rhode Island, the colony whose 
people were twofold exiles, — exiles from England, 
and exiles from New England, — persecution found no place. 
The assembly, gathered under the charter of 1644, estab- 
lished freedom of faith by legislative enactment, (1647.) 
Li petitioning for the charter of 1663, the Rhode Islanders 
urged their " lively experiment that a most flourishing civil 
state may stand and best be maintained with a full liberty 
of religious concernments." Time and maturing wisdom 
had taught Roger Williams to practise what he preached 
in favor of liberty of conscience. Even the Quakers, 
whose doctrines he much disliked and opposed, found 
refuge amongst his people, and so securely, that Rhode 
Island refused to insist upon the oath of allegiance to the 
crown, on account of the Quaker scruples to taking oaths 
of any kind. " The first liberty," wrote Williams, " is of 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 79 

our spirits, which neitlier Old nor New England knows the 
like, nor no part of the world a greater." He died, (1683 ;) 
but so directly did his better spirit descend to those coming 
after him, that with one exception bearing upon Roman 
Catholics, then excluded from the privileges of all the colo- 
nies, the laws of Rhode Island continued to bear and to for- 
bear for generation after generation. 

The relations between one class and another 

Inter-colo- 
nial diffi- within the colony being such as have been described, 

it may be inferred how uncertain were the relations 
between colony and colony. Differences of origin and of 
situation, enhanced by differences of creed, of policy, and of 
interest, brought about divisions and hostilities. Nor were 
these confined to colonies that were far remote from one 
another in position or in character. On the contrary, the 
instances to be mentioned are those of quarrels among 
neighbors ; nay, even among allies. 

... , Samuel Gorton, a clothier from London, who 

and Mas- found no welcome in Boston, Plymouth, or even in 
^^ " *^ ■ the Rhode Island settlements, purchased, in the last- 
named vicinity, some land from the Indians, and began the 
little colony of Shawomet. He seems to have been a 
sort of spiritualist, much given to rhapsody, if not blas- 
phemy, but harmless, di>posed to force his views upon 
none, and ready to fly ratlier than to fight amidst the war- 
ring parties of New England. But when pursued by his 
old opponents of Massachusetts, on the ground that the land 
which his colony occupied was theirs by virtue of subse- 
quent negotiations with the Indians, Gorton resolved to 
make a stand, (1643.) It was in vain. The dozen men 
whom he had with him could make no effectual defence 
against the forty who came, with commissioners at their 
head, from Massachusetts. A fcAv of the Shawomet party 
escaped ; but Gorton, with nine others, was transported as a 



80 PART II. 1638-1763. 

captive to Boston. There he was put upon trial, partly for 
rejecting the dominion, and partly for rejecting tiie creed 
of his conquerors. Convicted, of course, he was set to work 
in irons, most of his companions meeting the same fate. 
But as they proved troublesome, especially by instilling 
their doctrines into those around them, they were set free, 
" no more to come into the colony, upon pain of death," 
(1G44.) Gorton at once repaired to England, where, from 
the Earl of Warwick, then "governor-in-chief and lord 
high admiral of all those islands and plantations within 
the bounds and upon the coasts of America," he obtained a 
patent for his colony as a part of the Providence Planta- 
tions, the name of Shavromet being changed to that of its 
protector — Warwick, (1647.) Not long after, Massachu- 
setts attempted to get up another onslaught upon the War- 
wick settlement, but was prevented, (1651.) 

JMassachusetts was at the head of a confederacy, 
^Tr,\ c f the story of which will be found to throw much 

colouios Ul ./ 

New Eng- light upou the relations of colony to colony. It 
had been proposed, at an early date, (1637,) to 
form a leao-ue amongst the New England settlements ; but 
the project fell through, on account of the resistance of Con- 
necticut to the demands of Massachusetts. Circumstances 
induced Connecticut to give way, some time afterwards, 
when a confederacy was formed, under the name of " The 
United Colonies of New England," (1643.) Each colony 
was to appoint two commissioners, who must be church 
members, to conduct all matters of administration, to decide 
upon questions of peace or Avar, to regulate the demand and 
surrender of fugitive servants, slaves, or criminals ; but all 
acts of the commissioners required ratification by the peo- 
ple. In case of war, a certain number of troops was to be 
furnished by the different members of the league. IMassa- 
chusetts, furnishing a double proportion, obtained the honor 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 81 

of having the cortimissioners' annual session held twice as 
often at Boston as at any other place of meeting. Indeed, 
Massachusetts was the head and front of tlic wliole con- 
federacy. 

The spirit of the league soon came out. Massa- 
mcntof cluisetts (tfieu iuchidiug New Hampshire), Plym- 
isL?ud. outli, and the two Connecticut cok3nies being united, 
there remained jMaiue and Rhode Ir-hand. Maine 
was too scantily settled, as well as too remotely situated, 
to be taken into account ; but Hhodc Island, begirt by tiic 
confederates, liad sotnc claims to consideration. At all 
events, it asked admission to the union. The deniand was 
refused, except on condition that the colony would submit 
itself as a dependent to riymoutli. One cannot but won- 
der that, with such a temper, the league refrained from 
blottiiJ2: is independent neiirhbor out of existence. 
Disagree- Things went by no means smoothly amongst the 
mijuts. confederates themselves. At one time, Connecticut 
imposed a tax on river navigation, which acted adversely 
to the interests of the town of Springfield, (1647.) Massa- 
chusetts, at first remonstrating, soon broke out with an im- 
post upon goods imported from the other three colonies of 
the league, (1G49.) Nor was this repealed until after a 
grave protest from the commissioners, (1G50.) A year or 
two later, Connecticut desired v.-ar to be deolar-ed against 
the Dutch and Indians. Perhaps it was a hasty project ; but 
it found support from Plymouth. Massachusetts, however, 
refused to enter into it, and by so doing, nearly broke up 
die confederacy, (1G53.) AVlien the confederates agreed, it 
was often about such measures as those of persecution, to 
which reference has been made, or those of warfare, to 
which we shall arrive ere long. In fact, the United Colonies 
were united chiefly in deeds of violence. In works of jus- 
tice or of generosity, they generally broke asunder. Whea 



82 PART II. 1638-1763. 

their union came to an end, after a feeble existence of lialf 
a centiuy, it was regretted by none. 

The New Enorland colonies were not alone in 

Dissen- ° 

sions else- thcsc disturbed relations. New York was long at 
^''^'^' variance with Connecticut on one side, and with 
New Jersf^y on the other. Pennsylvania had her com- 
plaints agahist Virginia; Delaware hers against Pennsyl- 
vania. Wherever there was a view from one colony to 
anotlier, it seemed to open as frequently upon scenes of 
controversy as upon those of peace. 

Leaviu": the colonies themselves, and tuniin2^ to 

Penn and ° , 

Baiti- their proprietors, where they liad any, we discover 
the same disposition to strife. When William Penn 
obtained tlie grant of his domain of Pennsylvania, he knew 
that it encroached upon the claims of the Baltimore family 
of JMaryland. Their title to the territory, as far north as 
the fortieth degi'ee of latitude, had been infringed upon, but 
by foreigners — by the Dutch and by the Swedes. It was 
reserved for a fellow-countryman to appropriate it to him- 
self. Soon after the arri\al of Penn in America, he met 
Lord Baltimore at Newcastle, but wnthout being able to 
come to any agreement. This did not prevent the Quaker 
from founding his City of Brotherly Love upon the land 
claimed by the rival proprietor, (1G82.) At another meet- 
ing, in the following year, Penn consented to recognize tlie 
Baltimore claim, but only on condition that a price should 
be fixed for a portion bordering upon the Delaware, of 
which he naturally wished to retain the sovereignty. But 
as this offer was refused, Avhile another mode of settlement, 
proposed by Baltimore, was refused in turn by Penn, the 
two proprietors again separated in anger. When Balti- 
more renewed his demands, a few months after, Penn threw 
himself upon the Dutch title, to which he claimed succes- 
sion through the Duke of York, (1683.) After such a ple« 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 83 

as tliis, there was no liope of justic(3 from Pcnii. Appeal 
was made to England, wh.ere sentence was rendered against 
Baltimore, without being actually executed, (1G85.) It 
was three quarters of a century before the boundary be- 
tween Pennsylvania and Maryland was definitely deter- 
mined. 

The relations of the colonies to the mother coun- 
tcTthe""^ try, that is, to England, so far as they depended 
mother upon general principles, were brought forward in an 

country. /. i i t • • i i 

earlier part or the chapter, it is time to take them 
up with reference to the actual course of events. 
The Allegiance to the crown was one of the inborn 

crown, principles of the English colonist. It extended from 
him to those who had come from other lands than England. 
The Kinji; of Enjiland was the head of tlie church and the 
head of the state — the sapreme civil and mihtary power, to 
whom all the magistrates, all the tribunals, ail the laws, all 
the proceedings of the colonies, were subject. Even in the 
charter governments, the most independent of a!l, the royal 
supremacy was universally recognized. At the same time, 
the exact limits between the sovereignty of the king and 
the independence of the colony were nowhere defined. In 
the royal provinces, where the dependence upon the crown 
was the greatest, the rights of the popular bodies were often 
most pertinaciously asserted. 

As striking an exhibition as any other of the rela- 
II. cand tions of the colonies with royalty is to be found in 
Massa- the tweiity-fivc years' controversy between Charles 

II. and Massachusetts. AVhen the restoration of 
that monarch occurred, nearly a year was allowed to elapse, 
after the certain intelligence of the event, without an}^ proc- 
lamation of the royal authority in Massachusetts. There 
was a good deal, in fiict, for the colony to do, in order to 
(nake the proclamation satisfactory to all concerned. In the 



84 PART II. 1638-17G3. 

first place, she had to renounce all such theories as John 
Eliot had propounded in his Christian Commonwealth, con- 
cerning the superiority of the Mosaic over the English insti- 
tulions. In the next place, she had "to reject, as an in- 
fringement of right, any parliamentary or royal imposition 
prejudicial to the country." So that, between her own 
republicans on the one side, and the monarchists of England 
on the other, there was some difficulty in steering a course. 
At length, the king being proclaimed, John Norton and 
Simon Bradstreet were sent as agents, with letters and 
instructions half servile and half defiant, to seek the royal 
presence and obtain a confirmation of the colonial institu- 
tions, (16G2.) The king confirmed the charter, but added 
requisitions that were likely to set the whole colony in an 
uproar. All laws, he said, against the royal authority, must 
be repealed ; the oath of allegiance to the crown must be 
exacted ; the Book of Common Prayer must be tolerated, 
and the sacraments administered to "all of honest lives;" 
nay, the freeholders of the colony, if of suitable estate and 
character, must be admitted as its freemen. Such was the 
spite of Massachusetts men, in relation to the royal demands, 
even against their own helpless agents, that the minister 
Norton sank, it is said, under the general displeasure, 
(1663.) The arrival of four royal commissioners, in the fol- 
loAving year, was followed by a celebration of the church ser- 
vice, and by a law from the assembly, declaring freeholders, 
on certain conditions, to be freemen, (1604.) The next 
proceedings of the commissioners resulted in the temporary 
toleration of churchmen and Quakers, (1665.) It must 
have seemed as if the very foundations of Massachusetts 
had been thrown down. 

Long years of controversy between the colony and the 
king ensued. The departure of the commissioners was fol- 
lowed by the almost immediate arrest, of the changes 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 85 

^ which they .had introduced. A summons from the 

Loss of -" 

the Mas- king, calHng upon the colony to send representa- 
setts"aud tivcs to answcr the charges against it, was diso- 
other beyed, (1G6G.) Yet live years were allowed to 
elapse before the contumacy of the Massachusetts 
people was noticed, and then they were virtually passed 
over as " almost on the brink of renouncing any de- 
pendence on the crown," (1671.) Quite a considerable 
interval succeeded, in which agents after agents upheld the 
colony against its adversaries in England. Even bribes 
were resorted to, the Province of Maine and two thousand 
guineas being offered to the king himself. But it was too 
late. The royal will was roused ; the warrant went forth 
that the colony must submit, if it would have any charter 
at all. The magistrates were for yielding; the representa- 
tives — that is, the mass of the colonists — were for resist- 
ing ; and while they clung to their charter, it was declared 
to be forfeited, (1684.) The king immediately appointed a 
governor for Massachusetts, Plymouth, Maine, and New 
Hampshire ; but Charles dying, another official was sent 
out by James II., bearing the title of president of the same 
colonies, with the addition of the King's Province in Rhode 
Island, (1685.) The same year, the Rhode Island and 
Connecticut charters were put in abeyance. 
Pariia- Ncxt to the crown was the Parliament of the 

nieut. mother country. But this was by no means so 
fully acknowledged in the colonies. "AYe have not ad- 
mitted appeals to your authority," says the Massachusetts 
General Court to Parliament, " being assured they cannot 
stand with the liberty and power granted us by our char- 
ter," (1646,) — a declaration w^iich was followed up by 
Edward Winslow, then the agent for Massachusetts in 
England. "If the Parliament of England," he says, 
" should impose laws upon us, having no burgesses in their 
8 



86 PART II. 1638-1763. 

House of Commons nor capable of a summons by reason 
of the vast distance, we should lose the liberty and free- 
dom of English indeed." It was on these very grounds 
that the sway claimed for Parliament was again and again 
resisted. It was, however, again and again obeyed. 
Navi:;a- Parliament asserted its powers at an early day. 
tion acts. Dui'ii^g tlie Commonwealth, when it ruled supreme 
over England, it stretched forth its sceptre over America 
by an act requiring all colonial exports to England to be 
shipped only in American or English vessels, (1651.) 
This was extended by Parliament and the crown together, 
after the restoration of royalty, in a second act, ordering 
that most of the exports from the colonies should be shipped 
only to England, or to an English colony, and in American 
or English vessels, as before, (1660.) Two or three years 
afterwards, it was enacted that almost all imports into the 
colonies should be shipped only from England or from an 
English colony, and in American or English vessels, as by 
the preceding statutes, (1663.) These were the famous 
navigation acts, the first assertions of parliamentary au- 
thority over the commerce of the colonies. How grievous 
to these such restrictions were needs not to be dwelt upon. 
Duties. "^^^y were followed up, at no long interval, by 

duties upon the export and import of certain " enu- 
merated articles " from one colony to another, (1672.) This 
was interfering, not only with the trade, but with the very 
constitution of the colonies. It required a new body of of- 
ficials in the shape of revenue officers, appointed, of course, 
by the crown. Poyal custom houses were also needed. It 
was soon proposed to demand an oath from the governors 
of New England — where trade was busiest, and discontent 
rifest — that they would enforce the commercial restrictions. 
But John Leverett, governor of Massachusetts, refused, 
and the General Court of the same colony soon passed a 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 87 

resolution " that the acts of navigation are an invasion of 
the rights and privileges of the subjects of his majesty in 
this colony, they not being represented in the Parliament," 
(167G-79.) A notice of the appointment of a collector 
of the royal customs for New England was torn down in 
Boston by oixler of the colonial magistrates, (1680.) But 
it was in vain, as we shall soon find. Parliament had 
adopted the principle of regulating the colonial trade, and 
was not likely to yield to the ebullitions of Boston, or of 
any other place in the colonies. 

The authority of the mother country, whether 
govern- royal or parliamentary, was represented by a con- 
stantly increasing number of officials in the colonies. 
Of these none were so prominent as the royal governors, 
to whom we now arrive in pursuing the account o{ the 
colonial relations. 

Nowhere did things go worse than in Virginia, 
in vir- of whicli Sir William Berkeley, a loyal cavalier, 
^*'^'** had been governor for more than twenty years.* 
Under his influence, the very assembly of the province became 
a burden, protracting its sessions and extending its preroga- 
tives, providing a i3er[>etual (so termed) instead of an annual 
revenue for the royal officials, and appointing county courts 
to levy certain imposts which were within its own province 
alone. To these difficulties were added others arising from 
the hostile bearing of the Indians, with whom the governor 
was disposed to temporize far more than suited the ardent 
Virginians, (1G76.) 

jjacons ^11 ^t once, the province rose. One of the coun- 
rebeiiion. ^j]^ Nathaniel Bacon, being refused a commission 
against the Indians, declared that he would fake out a com- 
mission of his own; at which the governor unseated him 

* From 1641 to 1652, and again from 1660. 



88 PART II. 1638-1763. 

and declared liim a rebel. But lie was not the only one to- 
be put down- William Drummond, the first governor of 
North Carolina, and Richard Lawrence, both men of ener- 
gy and of culture, came out at Jamestown on Bacon's side. 
At their demand, supported by other colonists of influence, 
the assembly by which the governor had been blindly sup- 
ported was dissolved. Bacon, elected to a new assembly, 
carried various measures of reform, besides obtaining a 
commission of commanding officer against the Indians. 
Again declared a rebel, he called a convention, who prom- 
ised to stand by him w^hile he proceeded against the foe 
upon the frontier. But on the governor's taking the field 
with armed servants and Indians, supported by some Eng- 
lish men-of-war. Bacon and his party returned to meet 
him. Berkeley retreated, Bacon fired Jamestown, and 
soon after died. The cause which he had staked his all to 
support soon fell to pieces, and his chief adherents, Drum- 
mond amongst them, were hanged. Lawrence disappeared. 
" That old fool," said the good natured Charles II., on hear- 
ing of his governor's revenge, " has hanged more men in 
that naked colony than I did here for the murder of my 
father." Berkeley died of shame, it is said, in England 
He left Virginia crushed and desolate. 
. " New England, consolidated into one province, 

in New was givcii ovcr to Sir Edmund Andros, formerl}/ 
ngan . g^-,y(,j,j^Qj. q£ New York, (1686.) He made his ap- 
pearance with troops, overthrowing the colonial assemblies, 
if there were any left to overthrow, declaring the town 
organizations at an end, prohibiting the printing {»ress, and 
threatening even the property of the colonists by requiring 
them to take out new deeds of their estates from him. It 
was a i)arL of Ins commission to procure toleration, especial- 
ly for tlie church of P^ngland. To do this in Boston, ho 
saw fit to seize upon one of the Puritan churches to celebrate 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 89 

the church service. RLsistaiice was not attempted, and An- 
dros and his council ruled su})reme ; nor only over New 
England, but likewise over New York and New Jersey, 
both of which were attached to his government, (1G(S8.) 
In iact, he was on the high road to dominion over all the 
colonies. The charters of the Carolinas and of Maryland 
— that is, of every otlu^' colony which had a charter, 
save Pennsylvania alone — were menaced, (1GS6-88.) 
A waste of despotism seemed to be opening wherever 
freedom had found a foothold. 

Kevoiii- Just then came the news of the re\ohilion in 
tion. England, (1G89.) It was welcomed by a revolu- 
tion in America. Boston rose against Andros, deposing 
him, and declaring Simon Bradstreet governor. The 
reaction was by no means gentle. The churchmen, whom 
Andros had favored, and who supported him, sent an 
address to King William, bewailing the peril to them from 
the returning " anarchy and confusion of government under 
which this country hath so long groaned." Khode Island 
and Connecticut went farther than IMassachusetts, and 
resumed their treasured charters. New York took up 
arms under Jacob Leisler and a committee of safety. 
The other colonies, less sorely oppressed than those of 
New England and New York, received the news in com- 
parative tranquillity. A party in Maryland rose, but not 
against oppression so much as for the sake of sedition. 
The proi>rietary government fell, as has been told. 
But not It soon appeared, however, that the English 
liberty, rcvolution was not intended to be interpreted as 
setting the colonies free. The charter of 1691 proved it 
in Massachusetts. The execution of Jacob Leisler and 
Ins son-in-law, Milbourne, in New York, by orders, how- 
ever, of the new governor, Colonel Sloughter, rather llian 
by those of the king, was equally conclusive, (1G91.) 
8* 



90 PART II. 1638-1763. 

The appointment of Andros — the same Sir Edmund who 
had trampled upon both IMassachusetts and New York — 
to the government of Virginia* was a still more stunning 
demonstration, (1692.) 
^, , , A new attempt at colonial consolidation soon 

Fletcher '■ 

in New occurred. Colonel Benjamin Fletcher, a man of 

York 

for less character than Andros, was made gov- 
ernor of New York and Pennsylvania, including Dela- 
ware ; the proprietary government in the latter colonies 
being then suspended, (1G92.) He was also declared 
commander-in-chief of the Connecticut and the New Jer- 
sey militia. Soon after taking possession of New York 
and Pennsylvania, Fletcher proceeded to Connecticut to 
take command of the militia. They assembled at his 
orders ; but instead of listening to his commission, the 
senior officer, Captain Wadsworth, cried, " Beat the 
drums ! " On Fletcher's attempting to persevere, Wads- 
worth exclaimed, " If I am interrupted again. Til make 
the sun shine through you in a moment," (1693.) Thus 
baffled in his military functions, the governor returned to 
his civil powers in New York and Pennsylvania. The 
latter province, after resisting his demands for a grant of 
money, yielded only on condition that it should be dis- 
bursed by tlie provincial treasurer — a condition which 
Fletcher would not, and, if obedient to his instructions, 
could not allow, (1694.) New York itself was restive 
under his control. A tax for the support of ministers 
and the erection of churches had led to a debate between 
the council and the assembly; the council proposing that the 
governor should nominate the new clergy, but the assembly 
opposing. " You take it upon you," declared Fletcher to 
the assembl}^, " as if you were dictators ; " but the assem- 

* He proved, however, to be a comparatively good governor there 



COLONIAL EELATIONS 91 

bly stood fast, and soon carried tlicir point, " tliat the 
vestry and the churcliwardens have a po\ver to call their 
own minister," a dissenter, if so they pleased, although 
the governor was strong for the church of England, 
(1695.) It had been proposed by a clergyman of this 
church to combine New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, 
and Rhode Island in a single province, with a bishop, 
residing at New York, for its civil as well as ecclesiastical 
head. But this, more naturally even than Governor 
Fletcher's designs, came to nought. Fletcher himself, 
falling into disgrace at home, was recalled, leaving his 
attempts at consolidation an utter failure, (1698.) 

The troubles implied in the various colonial rela- 

General ^ 

strict- tions account for much that has been ascribed to 
other causes. It has been so common to consider 
the Puritan severity as a thing apart, that one does not 
immediately seize upon the fact of the almost universal 
strictness that prevailed. Virginia, for instance, gave no 
harbor to Puritanism. Yet the Virginia code thunders 
against "mercenary attorneys," (1643,) burgesses "dis- 
guised with over much drink," (1659,) tippling houses, 
(1676,) and Sunday travelling, (1692.) Maryland de- 
clares with as much solemnity as Massachusetts against 
profanity, (1642.) Nor were precautions of a different 
nature neglected. Both Maryland (1642-1715) and New 
York (1665) make it necessary to procure a passport be- 
fore traversing or leaving the colonial })recincts. It was 
from a similar impulse that the " handicraftsmen " of Bos- 
ton petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts to be 
protected against " strangers from all parts " who were 
interfering with their trade, not to say their influence in 
the community, (1677.) All over the colonies, there 
reigned a spirit of watchfulness, perhaps more grim, but 
certainly not more resolute, in one place than in another, 



92 PART IT. 1638-1763. 

It might be increased or climinislied by the social or the 
religious temper of the colonists ; the New Englander was 
likely to be more upon his guard than the Virginian. But 
the spirit was the common growth of the new country, 
whose depths were still hid in the wilderness, whose borders 
were still bristling with the arrow or the steel. 
„ ., ^ The perils of the frontier are yet to be described. 

Penis of ^ •^ 

the frou- All arouud the colonists, there extended a line, or 
rather a series of lines, one after another, of sus- 
pected neighbors or of open foes. The Indian lay in 
ambush on this side ; on that, the European, Swede, Dutch- 
man, Sj)aniard, or Frenchman, stood in threatening attitude. 
Nor was the land alone overspread with enemies ; the waters 
swarmed with pirates and with buccaneers ; nay, the very 
air seemed to be filled with ghostly shapes and with appall- 
ing sounds. The world of spirits, as the colonists believed, 
was agitated by the wars amongst the races of America. 



Spirit 



CHAPTER III. 

Indian Wars. 

Trouble between the European and the Indian 
of the was inevitable. It did not generally originate with 
the Indian, for he was disposed to welcome the 
stranger, and to help him in his trials. One of the very 
earliest visitors of the Plymouth settlers, as their first 
winter of suffering drew to an end, was Squanto, who had 
been kidnapped by an English vessel, seven years before, 
sold to slavery in Spain, released by Spaniards, and 
restored to his native country. Instead of revenging him- 
self upon the English, he caught fish for them, and showed 
them how to plant and dress their corn. Icdeed, there are 
few passages in history more honorable to human nature 
than those which recall the trustful and generous spirit of 
the red men towards the white men on these. shores. 

... It was far from being always, or even habitually, 
the Eu- requited. From the other side of the ocean, men 
ropeans. j^qJ^^^j upon the American natives wdth a mag- 
nanimous kindliness, wdiich on this side Avas too often trans- 
formed into distrust and hostility. A European thought 
himself bound by no obligations to an Indian. His trea- 
ties w^ere to his own advantage, his bargains to his own 
profit, his efforts to his own supremacy. The noblest of the 
English missionaries to the Indians, John Eliot, called 
them " the dregs of mankind." Only from a distance that 
lent enchantment to the view could a gentler estimate be 

(93) 



94 PART II. 1638-1763. 

formed. " Concerning the killing of those poor Indians," 
wrote John Robinson, the Puritan minister, from Holland 
to his brethren at Plymouth, in relation to the slaughter of 
several natives suspected of conspiring against that settle- 
ment, " O, how happy a thing had it been if you had 
converted some before you had killed any ! Besides, where 
blood is once begun to be shed, it is seldom stanched of a 
long time after. . . . It is also a thing more glorious 
in men's eyes than pleasing in God's, or convenient for 
Christians, to be a terror to poor barbarous people," (1623.) 
„. . It was the idea of Kinoj James of England, in 

Mission- *^ o •' 

ary la- issuing thc patent of Virginia, to civilize and con- 
'^^^' vert the natives of the country which he was giving 
to his companies. The London Company, accordingly, in 
conjunction with individuals both in England and in Amer- 
ica, made some exertion to carry out the royal design. A 
school for natives was planned, as has been mentioned, 
but without being established. The colony of Plymouth, 
listening to Robinson's appeal, recognized the possibility of 
brotherhood with the Indians. Laws were formally enact- 
ed to provide for the conversion of the natives to the Chris- 
tian faith, (163G.) Massachusetts framed what may be 
called a code of " necessary and wholesome laws to reduce 
them to civility of life," (November 4, 1646.) 
The Ma Obtaining an English grant of Martha's Vine- 
hews and yard, and then confirming his title by purchase 
from the natives, Thomas Mayhew began almost 
immediately to teach those who remained with him upon 
the island, (1643.) A more active missionary, however, 
was his son Thomas, who, after ten years' exertions, 
perished on a voyage to England, whither he was going for 
aid to his mission, (1657.) His father, and afterwards his 
son, continued the work to which he had sacrificed himself. 
Meanwhile John Eliot had beofun his labors on the Massa- 



.INDIAN WARS. 95 

chiisetts mainland. Preparing himself by the study of the 
Indian tongue, of which he afterwards composed a gram- 
mar, he met a party of Indians, for the iirst time as their 
preacher, at Nonantum. "Upon October 28, 1G4G," he 
writes with touching simplicity, " four of us (having sought 
God) went unto the Indians inhabiting our bounds, with 
desire to make known the things of their peace to them." 
Thenceforward Eliot went on founding and rearing Indian 
churches, now travelling from the Merrimac to Cape Cod, 
and now laboring at the translation of the Catechism, and 
even of the Bible, into the language of his converts, 
(1661-63.) 

Both Eliot and the Mayhews, as well as other 

missionaries to the Indians, received their chief 
encouragement from a Society " for Promoting and Propa- 
gating the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England," incor- 
porated by act of Parhament, (1649.) Large collections 
aided the labors and provided for the expenses of those 
who engaged in the holy enterprise. " Right honorable 
nursing fathers," is the address which Ehot uses in giving 
the society an account of his labors. He writes to Robert 
Boyle, apparently the life and soul of the society, as his 
" right honorable, right charitable, and indefatigable nurs- 
ing father." New England itself did comparatively little. 
Massachusetts granted lands to the converted Indians, but 
without much sympathy with them or with their teachers. 
The work, as a colonial one, languished. 

The results were therefore inconsiderable. Wliat 

the Indians, or many of them, thought of the mis- 
sions may be gathered from the answer of a Narraganset 
• sachem to the missionary Mayhew applying for permission 
to preach among the tribe. " Go make the English good 
first." What many of the English thought of the missions 
may be gathered from the declaration of Daniel Gookin, 



96 PART II. 1638-1763. 

superintendent of the converts, — "a pillar," pays Eliot, 
" in our Indian work," — that lie was " afraid to be seen 
in the streets," at the time of much ill will against llie 
natives. Thirty years after the missionary enterprise be- 
gan, there were nominally upwards of three thousand 
converts, (1673.) But the tirst church which Eliot found- 
ed — that at Natick — was, a few years subsequent to his 
death, but " a small church of seven men and three 
women; their pastor, Daniel Tohkohwampait," (1G98.) 
Even before Eliot departed, he had seen his work declin- 
ing. Endeavoring to get out a new edition of his version 
of the Scriptures, he wrote, " I am deep in years, and 
sundry say, if I do not procure it printed while I li^■e, it 
is not within the prospect of human reason whether ever, 
or when, or how it may be accomplished." Things must 
have been low indeed, when the mere reprint of the Bible 
was so '^ifficult. But " his charity," to use Eliot's death- 
bed words, " held out still," and all that he could do wasf 
done when he died, (1690.) 

Wars ill '^^^^ wars with the Indians were more effective. 
Virginia Earliest of these was the war of Opechancanough 
Mary- Powliatan's successor, against the colony of Vir- 
land. ginia. Provoked by the murder of one of their 
warriors, the Indians suddenly fell upon the English settle- 
ments, which, it seems, they would have utterly annihilated, 
but for the warning given by a converted countryman of 
theirs to a Jamestown settler, (1622.) Hostilities, con- 
tinued at intervals for many years, w^ere revived by a 
second surprise of the colony by the Indians, (1642.) 
Opechancanough being taken prisoner and slain, his con- 
federates made peace, giving up all the land between the 
York and James Rivers, (1616.) In this latter war, Mary- 
land had been involved. Thirty years later, the two colo- 
nies were again united in repelling the Susquehannas, with 
eome other tribes, (1675-77.) 



INDIAN WARS. 97 

Tequot Meanwhile, more dangerous conflicts had arisen 

war. jj-j j^ew EngLand. The first actual war with the 
Indians tliere occurred in consequence of some murders by 
the Pequots and the Narragansets ; the latter tribe extend- 
ing along the western shore of Narraganset Bay, the for- 
mer stretching from the Thames to the Connecticut Rivers. 
The Narraganset chief, Canonicus, making amends for his 
followers, the expedition which Massachusetts equipped to 
avenge the murdered was directed chiefly against tlie 
Pequots, with the result, however, of exciting rather than 
punishing them, (1636.) They were on the point of per- 
suading the Narragansets to make common cause with 
them, when Roger Williams, at the peril of his life, sought 
tiie ^vigwam of Canonicus, in order to avert an alliance 
which would have threatened Massachusetts, not to say 
New England, with desolation. It was the return which 
the exile made for the persecution from which he had but 
just escaped. Instead of joining the Pequots, the Narra- 
gansets sent their young sachem Miantonimoh to make 
friends with the people at Boston. At about the same 
time, the alliance of the Mohegans, a tribe of Northern 
Connecticut, under Uncas, was secured by the Connecticut 
colonists. As the si3ring opened, the colonial forces, 
amounting in all to little more than one hundred, with 
two or three hundred Indian allies, took the field, and in 
four months swept the unhappy Pequots from the face of 
the earth. Nearly a thousand of them were slain ; the 
rest, whether men or women, old or young, being reduced 
to captivity and slavery. Their territory was divided 
between Massachusetts and Connecticut, (1637.) 
Narra- Notwithstanding the alliance with Miantonimoh 

ganscts. r^j^fi ^\^Q Narragansets, they were soon treated as 
foes. Defeated by the Mohegans, with whom they went to 
war, the Narragansets saAV their chieftain a prisoner. He 
9 



98 PART II. 1638-1763. 

was saved by the interposition of his friend Gorton, the 
founder of Warwick, only to be given up again by the 
commissioners of the United Colonies to the Mohegan 
Uncas, by whose brother he was despatched. To shield 
Uncas from the revenge of the Narragansets, the colo- 
nies furnished him with a body guard, and even took 
up arms, when Pessacus, the brotlier and successor of 
Miantonimoh, began war against his Mohegan enemies. 
Nor did Pessacus avert the storm thus conjured up, but 
by submitting to make amends to both the Mohegans and 
the United Colonies, (1645.) The tribute which he then 
consented to pay was afterwards wrenched from him by 
violence, (1650.) 

King ^ quarter of a century later, and the ill-treated 

Philip, tribe of Miantonimoh and Pessacus were drawn 
into the great Avar that goes by the name of King Philip's. 
He was Metacomet, the son and successor of Massasoit, 
with whom the Plymouth colonists had made an early 
treaty, the chief of the Pokanokets or "Wampanoags, a 
tribe on the eastern shore of Narraganset Bay. Suspected 
and assailed by the people of Plymouth, w^hose authorities 
claimed jurisdiction over him, Philip (to call him by his 
familiar name) was at length accused of hatching a gener- 
al conspiracy amongst the Indians. The accuser, a native 
of bad character, although professedly converted, was slain 
by some of Phihp's men, three of whom were presently 
hanged, without any actual proof of their being the mur- 
derers, by ordei^ of the court at Plymouth. Philip wept, it 
is said, at the idea of warfare witli tlie English. But he 
could not keep peace with them ; and so began a ^var, by 
fai" the most deadly of all between the English and tiie 
Indians, (1675.) 

Driven almost immediately from his domains about 
Mount Hope, and soon afterwards from his i^etreats in 



INDIAN WARS 99 

the Rhode Island swamps, Philip led his few war- 
through- riors into the heart of Massachusetts, where the In- 
out New (Jij^ns had already risen in arms. Thence the circle 

of hostilities spread on all sides, to the tribes of the 
Connecticut valley in the west, to those of the Merrmiac 
valley in the east, and farther still, to the Abenakis of 
Maine — the latter, however, being engaged in warfare of 
their own, unconnected with Philip and his allies. Against 
these was arrayed the whole of New England. Rhode 
Island, it is true, rather suffered than fought ; nor were 
Maine and New Hampshire, then the dependencies of Mas- 
sachusetts, able to take any active part. But the United 
Colonies were all in arms. A few hundred combatants 
were the most that could be mustered in any single battle ; 
yet the strife was more than proportioned to the numbers or 
the resources on either side. Month after month witnessed 
scenes of ambush, assault, devastation, and butchery. The 
work of blood was as savagely done by the English as by 
the Indians. 

As winter drew nigh, the suspicions of the colo- 
tioii ofthe "^^^ ^VQra excited by Uncas, the Mohegan, against 
Nanagaa- l^ig old focs, the Narragauscts. They had given 

pledges of peace at the beginning of the war ; nor 
were there now any signs of hostility on their part, except 
the shelter which they were charged with giving to the 
broken Pokanokets. But the commissionei^ of the United 
Colonies, the successors of those who had given up Mian- 
tonimoh and humbled Pessacus, declared war against the 
Narragauscts and their cliief, Canonchet. It took but a 
few days to overrun tiie. Narrr.ganset teri'itory, and to de- 
feat the tribe in a fearful fight which cost the colonial forces 
dear. Driven from their forests and their fastnesses, the 
Narragansets spread over the adjoining lands, and even as 
far as within eiditeen miles of Boston. " TVe will die to 



100 PART II. 163S-1763. 

the last man," exclaimed Canonchet, when taken in tlie 
spring, "but not be slaves to the Englishman." He was 
slain, and his nation laid low forever. 

The fall of the Narragansets was accompanied by 
' that of the tribes within the limits of Massachusetts. 
Most of the survivors turned their backs upon their ancient 
hunting grounds in search of freedom in the north and west. 
Philip, who had mourned over the beginning of the war, 
was too strono; in heart to outlive its close. He souo;ht the 
home of his fathers, and there, after losing his wife, his 
child, and most of his few remaining warriors, he was shot 
by a renegade Pokanoket. His boy, the last of his line, 
was sold into slavery in Bermuda. His race was given 
over to the executioner and the slave dealer; his territory 
went to Plymouth, and, half a century afterwards, to Rhode 
Island. But it was no bloodless victory that the colonies 
had won. '' The towns are so drained of men," wrote Lev- 
erett, governor of Massachusetts, in the thick of the contest, 
" we are not able to send out any more." Six hundred of 
the best colonists had perished ; ten times that number, and 
more, had suffered from the losses and the agonies which 
befkll even the survivors of a war. Six hundred dwellings 
were burned ; many a town was partially, many a one totally 
destroyed. The mere expenses of the war amounted to some- 
thing enormous in comparison with the actual means of the 
colonies. It is pleasant to meet with the record of a contri- 
bution of five hundred jwunds, collected by an elder brother 
of Increase Mather, a Puritan minister in Dublin. The 
war had lasted a little more than a year, (1676.) 

There still remained a few Indian war parties to 
deal with in the Connecticut valley, as well as the 
Abenaki tribes in Maine. The former were soon driven 
off; but the latter kept to their arms until peace was liter- 
ally bought i>f them by Sir Edmund Andros, the governox 



INDIAN WARS. 101 

of New York, to which province, it may be remembered, 
the eastern part of Maine then belonged, (1678.) 
AbcDakis The Abenakis were soon in arms again. Enlisted 
in arms, qj-j |.}^^ gj^j^ ^f ^i^q French in the wars to be related 
by and by, the eastern tribes repeatedly laid waste the 
English settlements. A quarter of a century (1689-1713) 
did not still the passions thus excited. At a time of peace 
between England and France, the colonists of the former 
nation attacked the allies, nay, the very missionaries of the 
latter. Sebastian Rasles, the patriarch of a Norridgewock 
village on the Kennebec, Avhere he dwelt alone amidst his 
savage converts, became the object of especial jealousy to 
the government of Massachusetts. An armed expedition 
failed in making him captive, (1722.) But a renewed 
assault was more successful, the venerable priest being 
slain, his chapel sacked, his village destroyed, (1724.) All 
the tribes of the east entered into the war. The only ally 
of Massachusetts was Connecticut; the efforts to obtain 
support from the Mohawks being answered by the advice 
that Massachusetts slioiild do justice to her foes, (1722.) 
Peace Avas made, after a live years' conflict. It was broken 
more than once in the later French wars, (1744, 1754.) 
But the Abenakis submitted at last, (1760.) 

The central and southern colonies were for many 
the cen- jears undisturbed by Indian wars. Treaties with 

tie and ^^^ Fivo Nations — the more easily made and kept 
fiouUi. , ., -11 

as these tribes were contmually at enmity with the 
French of Canada — protected the frontiers of the colonies 
of the centre. Those of the south, for some time unassailed, 
were at length overrun. 

^^.^j. .^ North Carolina, after frequent aggressions on the 

North part of her settlers, was swept by tlie Tuscaroras, 

(1711.) The aid of South Carolina, with that of 
her Indian allies, w^is called in, before peace could be re- 
9* 



102 PART II. 1G38-1763. 

stored, even for a brief period. Soon breaking out again, in 
consequence of the continued injuries inflicted upon the 
Indians, the war grew so threatening as to require the inter- 
l)Osition of Virginia as well as of South CaroHna. The 
three colonies together forced the Tuscaroras to fly to their 
kindred, the Fire Nations of New York, by whom, as was 
formerly mentioned, they were received as a sixth tribe of 
the confederacy, (1713.) 

In South South Carolma, some time before involved in strife 
Carolina, ^j^li the Indian alUes of the Spaniards in Florida, 
Avas presently threatened with a more serious war. The 
tribes of the south, especially the Yamassees, aggrieved by 
the treatment which they received from the colonists, dashed 
upon their plantations, and, with revenge and slaughter, 
pressed northward towards Charleston. So great was the 
peril, that the governor armed the slaves of the province, 
besides obtaining a law from the assembly authorizing the 
conscription of freemen. These means, backed by the re- 
sources of North Carolina and Virginia, averted the ruin 
that appeared to be approaching. The Yamassees, driven 
back with their confederates, were forced to seek refuge in 
Florida, (1715.) 

Nearly half a century elapsed before the Indians 
Chero- took up the hatcliet in the south. The Cherokees, 
invaded first by the forces of the Carolinas and Vir- 
ginia, and then by the royal troops, at that time carrying on 
the last French war, retorted with sword and fire, (1759-60.) 
But the English and the colonial soldiery together proved 
too much for the Cherokees, who were soon reduced to 
humiliating terms of peace, (1761.) 

Meantime, the western settlements had becjun to 

With "- 

uostern bear the brunt of Indian warfare. Pennsylvania 
tr'^es. ^^^^^ attacked, just as the final contest with the 
French began, (1755,) by the Delawares and Shawanoes, 



INDIAN WARS. 103 

the former of whom had been infamously driven from their 
land by the Pennsylvanians, or tlieir proprietors, many 
years before. Other tribes, joining with these, spread 
havoc along all the western borders of the colonies, mitil 
peace was conquered, (1758.) 

Poniiac's The French war over, (1763,) the same tribes, 
war. ^yji^]^ others of varied name and race, united under 
the great Ottawa chieftain, Pontiac, in one simultaneous 
attempt to clear the western country of the English inva- 
ders. Such an onslaught, occurring at an earlier period, 
might have driven the English, not only from the west but 
from the east. But made against them when they had just 
prevailed against the hosts of France, the attacks of the 
Indians, though at first successful, were met and decisively 
subdued, (1764.) * 

, .. Some sad and strano;e events, in connection with 

in Penu- the War thus closed, must be mentioned, for the sake 
sy vania. ^^ ^j^^ illustration which they offer of the passions so 
long dividing the English and the Indians. A number of 
Pennsylvanians, opposed to their own authorities, and ex- 
cited with suspicion and hatred against all of Indian blood, 
made such demonstrations against the Indian converts of 
the Moravian missionaries, for some time at work in Penn- 
sylvania, that the assembly ordered the Indians to be 
removed to Philadelphia. Hardly was this done, when the 
settlers of Paxton, a frontier town, put to death a handful of 
Indians lingering at Conestoga, pursuing and slaying some 
who, for safety's sake, had been lodged in the Lancaster 
jail. A force of from five to fifteen hundred borderers then 
set out on a march against Philadelphia, where they intended 
to seize the Indians transported thither, if not to make 
themselves masters of the city and the province altogether 

* The extreme western tribes remained in arms till 1765. 



104 FART II. 1G38-17G3. , 

They were not without their sympathizers in Philadelphia ; 
but those who were prepared to resist them took so deter- 
mined a course as to avert the dangers of the insurrection. 
The show of force in the city persuaded the borderers to 
retire, (17Go-G4.) 

The tomahawk was not yet buried in the west or 
wai?, but "^ the south. Year after year some party or some 
the issue iy[]jQ of Indians broke loose upon the frontiers. But 

decided. 

the question had long been decided as to the hands 
into which victory was to fall. The scattered tribes, ill 
provided with arms or stores, with discipline or skill, had 
fallen away, from the first, before the concentrated numbers 
and accumulated resources of the colonists. Whatever indi- 
vidual bravery could do, whatever the undying independ- 
ence of any single tribe could achieve, was all in vain, 
before the resistless advance of the English. Nay, not of 
the English alone, but of the Indians themselves, allied with 
the conquerors of their countrymen. But for such as joined 
the stranger, the conquest would have been slower, although 
none the less sure. 

Later The Indian wars form by no means a bright cliap- 

missions. ^^j, jj^ q^. j^Jstory. But, as we found something to 
light up the early, so we find something to light up the later 
relations of the Indians and the English. The missions, 
begun by the Mayhews and by Eliot, had never been aban- 
doned in Massachusetts. As time passed, and the native 
race grew thinner upon its former soil, new stations were 
taken, to reach the remoter tribes. A mission at Stock- 
bridge, at first in the charge of John Sergeant, afterwards 
obtained no less a superintendent than Jonathan Edward.-:, 
(1737-50.) A more radiant name is that of David Brain- 
erd^ of Connecticut, who, after laboring between Stockbridge 
and Albany, turned southwards to Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey, (1744.) The exertions of a few years so enfeebled 



INDIAN WARS. 105 

him that he returned to the Connecticut valley only to die, 
(1747.) His place was taken in Pennsylvania by Mora- 
vian missionaries, (1748,) whose labors, protracted to a 
much later period, came to such sad results as have just been 
described. The missionary would convert the Indians ; the 
colonist would hunt them to death. Alas, that so little was 
wrought by the friend and the teacher, in comparison with 
the vast achievements of the foe and the destroyer ! 



CHAPTER IV, 
Dutch Wars- 

^ Retutintng to trace the fortunes of the Dutch 

with In- settlement of New Netherlands we immediately 
find it, like its English neighbors, at war with the* 
Indians, whom we may call Manhattans of the Algon- 
quin race. Vexed by the traders, oppressed by the officials- 
of the colony, the Manhattans had provocation enough 
to take op arm^ at an early period- But the vicinity of 
their dreaded foes, the Mohawks of the Five Nations, who 
were disposed to be friends with the Dutch, kept them at 
peace until peace was impossible. The incursions of the 
Indians into the Dutch settlements, and the horrid massa- 
cres inflicted hy the Dutch in retiirn, were of the same 
nature as the hostilities already described, (lG4(>-43.) A 
temporary truce was instantly broken by a general war, 
spreading from the main land to the islands, and devas- 
tating almost the whole of the colony. But for a company 
of English settlers, just I'resh from encounters with the 
Indians, it would have gone hard with New Netherland. 
As it was, the exliaustion of the colony was as gi'eat as 
that of its foes, when a treaty terminated the war, (1G43-45.) 
Thrice, however, within the next twenty years, the Indians 
rose against the still oppressive Dutchmen, (1G55, 1658, 
1663.) 

The increase of New Netherland was anT-ested by 



DUTCH WARS. 107 

gg.^^^ these repeated wars. A contemporary document* 
upon (1644) dwells upon the favorable prosjx'cts of 
Nether- the colonj after the fur trade was thrown open, 
land. (1638,) as previously mentioned. " At which time," 
we are told, " the inhabitants there resident not only spread 
themselves far and wide, but new colonists came thither 
from fatherland, and the neighboring English, as well from 
Virginia as from New England, removed under us." The 
hopes thus inspired are expressly stated to have been 
blasted by the Indian wars. 

Internal ^^^ ^^^^ wars nevcr occurred, the colony would 
restric- have had no rapid progress. In itself it was divided 
by what may be called castes. The patroons, for 
instance, were an order by themselves, not necessarily hos- 
tile to the authorities or unfriendly to the colonists, yet often 
proving to be one or both. Then the colony lay at the 
mercy of the company and its director, whose supremacy 
was shared by none but a few officials and councillors. 
The attempts at representation on the part of the more 
substantial colonists, were of no avail. Boards of twelve, 
eight, and nine men were successively established, with the 
director's consent, but without any power to restrain him or 
to elevate themselves. It was at length resolved by the 
nine men to draw up a statement of their gi'ievances to be 
laid before the government of the mother country. But 
the member charged with preparing the document, Adrian 
Van der Donck, was robbed of his papers, thrown into 
prison, and expelled from the board of the nine men as well 
as from the director's council, in which he had a seat, (1649.) 
Liberated from his imprisonment, Van der Donck set sail 
for Holland, with other representatives of the cause for 
which he had suffered. His exertions there brought about 

♦ In O'Callaghan's History of New Netherland, Appendix E. 



108 TART II. 1638-1763. 

a provincial order from the States General, by which the 
West India Company was directed to make some conces- 
sions to the colony, (1650.) Two years elapse, and we 
find Van der Donck still appealing to the States General for 
justice, (1 652.) The most that he procured was a municipal 
government for the city (as it was styled) of New Amster- 
dam, the first city of the United States. It was organized 
in tlie following year, (1653,) with sheriff, burgomasters., 
and judges, but all appointed by the director, Peter Stuyve- 
sant, who had carried on for several years a downright war 
in defence of his prerogatives. In resentment against him 
personally much of the vigor belonging to the hberal party 
had been expended. He carried the day, it must be con- 
fessed, notwithstanding the city charter, notwithstanding 
also the remonstrances of a convention of eight towns held 
the same year. 
„ ,. . The measure of arbitrary government was not 

Religious •' ^ 

persecu- yet full. At the instance of two clergymen of the 
Dutch church, a proclamation from the director ap- 
peared, threatening fines upon all preachers and hearers of 
unlicensed congregations, (1656.) The first to suffer were 
Lutherans, who were not merely fined, but imprisoned ; then 
some Baptists, who were not merely fined, but banished. 
Soon after, a few Quakers fell into the hands of the per- 
secutors, one of them being subjected to tortures as horrid 
as any inflicted in the English colonies, (1657.) A few 
years afterwards, the remonstrance of a Quaker, John 
Bowne, who had been transported to Holland as a criminal, 
brought upon Director Stuyvesant the censure of the com- 
pany for his oppression, (1662-63.) 

Despite all these drawbacks upon its strength, 

Subjec- ' 1 . 1 1 1 /• 

tion of New Netherland was strong enough, with help from 
deT ^^^^ ^^^ company, to subdue its neighbor^ of New Swe- 
den. That colony, though reenforced at times, con- 



DUTCH WARS. 109 

tinued in a precarious state, with few settlers and uncertain 
resources. Protested against by the Dutch as interloping 
\vithin their territory, it had nevertheless invited Dutch 
emigrants amongst its own settlers, (1G40.) But the New 
Netherland authorities were on the alert. Partly in op- 
position to a Connecticut settlement attempted on the Dela- 
ware, but chiefly in resistance to the advances of the Swedes, 
Stuyvesant built his Fort Casimir at the present Newcas- 
tle, (1651.) A new governor, Rysingh, coming to the 
Swedish colony, got possession of the fort without difficulty, 
(1654.) It cost him dear ; for Stuyvesant, with a force of 
several hundred, principally sent from Holland for the pur- 
pose, not only recovered Fort Casimir, but conquered Fort 
Christina and the whole of New Sweden, (1655.) A few 
Swedes swore allegiance to the Dutch ; the rest went home 
or emigrated to the English colonies. The Swedish gov- 
ernment protested against the conquest of its colony ; but 
it had too much upon its hands in Europe to recover its pos- 
sessions in America. So New Sweden came to an end ; 
and the dream of the generous Gustavus Adolphus that he 
was to found a place of refuge from persecution and from 
corruption vanished forever. 

New Am- Tlic victorious West India Company hardly knew 
stei. what to do ^vith its conquest. It found a purchaser, 
however, in the city of Amsterdam, which became the mis- 
tress of what had been New Sweden, — portions of our Dela- 
ware and ^Pennsylvania, — under the name of New Amstel, 
(1656.) This was enlarged by a subsequent purchase so 
as to embrace the Dutch possessions on both banks of the 
Delaware ; in other words. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 
Delaware, (1663.) 
_, ,. ^ But the dominions of the Dutch, whether West 

English . ' 

aggres- India Company or Amsterdam city, were passing 
into other hands. The claims of England to the 
10 



110 PART II. 1638-1763. 

territory had been asserted, as mentioned in a former chap- 
ter, from a very early period. They lost nothing, it may be 
believed, of their force, as colonies multiplied and lands 
were in continually increasing demand. An old grant from 
the Council for New England* was made to cover Long 
Island. Connecticut and Massachusetts putshed on towards 
the Hudson. On the south, i)arties from Connecticut and 
from Maryland threatened the domains u{)on the Delawaro^ 
(1 639-G3.) Year after year, during a quarter of a century, 
brought some fresh invasion of the English, exciting some 
fresh remonstrance from the Dutch. " Those of Hartford," 
runs one of the Dutch records, " have not only usurped and 
taken in the lands of Connecticut, but have also beaten 
the servants of their high mightinesses the honored com- 
pany with sticks and plough staves, laming them," (1640.) 
It is the tone of all the records, querulous and feeble, 
the wail of a colony never numbering more than ten 
thousand against its far more numerous neighbors. Nor 
were its neighbors its only foes. Amongst its own people 
was a large number of Englishmen, emigrants from hostile 
colonies, who naturally became hostile settlers. At one 
time, some English villages of Long Island proclaimed " the 
commonwealth of England and his highness the lord pro- 
tector," (1655.) At another, the towns at the west end of 
the island proclaimed the English king, (1663.) Finally; 
the danger was so great that Peter Stuyvesant, the foe of 
all liberal institutions, called a convention of his^ province. 
It appeal's how far the English had pushed their aggressions 
on scanning the meagre list of the towns or settlements 
that were represented. New Amsterdam and Rensselaers- 
wyck head the roll of twelve. The convention favored peace 
with the Indians ; as for the English, why, the English ia 
New Netherland alone were " six to one," (1664.) 

* To the Earl of Stirling, (1635.) 



DUTCH WARS. Ill 

^^^, Long as the dissensions between the English and 

loss of the the Dutch had lasted, neither the colonies nor the 
province, j^^jj^^j. countries had gone to war about them, A 
war of two years (1652—54) between the Dutch and the 
English under Cromwell did not involve their American 
settlements. When England came under Charles IL, 
another war with Holland was resolved upon, partly from 
commercial and partly from political motives, the chief 
of the latter being the intimate connection at that time 
between the Dutch and the French. Before war was for- 
mally declared. New Netherland was surprised by an Eng- 
lish fleet- It did not come as a national, but as an individ- 
ual expedition. Charles IL had made a grant, as lias been 
narrated, of New Netherland to the Duke of York and 
Albany. It had been the work of a few months only for the 
duke to buy up other EngUsh claims, and collect commis- 
sioners and troops to take possession of his new realms. 
Accompanied by John Winthrop, governor of Connecti- 
cut, who, though amiable and disinterested in most respects, 
was full of determination against the Dutch, the commis- 
sioners, headed by Colonel Nichols, obtained possession of 
the province without battle. The terms of the surrender 
promised to the conquered their religion, their law of inherit- 
ance, and their trade and intercourse with Holland, (1664.) 
The transaction, at first professedly discountenanced by 
England, was afterwards sustained by her, and finally sub- 
mitted to by Holland in the treaty of Breda, (1667.) 

On the outbreak of fresh hostilities between the 

Keeovery 

and final samc countrics, a few years later, (1672,) New York, 
as New Amsterdam was now called, received the 
Fummons to capitulate to a Dutch squadron, (1673.) It did 
Fo, and was held by the Dutch for upwards of a year, when 
it was once more, and for the last time, surrendered by them, 
(1674.) Thus were the Dutch, and with them the Swedes, 
brought beneath the Enfrllsh dominion. 



CHAPTER V. 

Spanish Wars. 

Spanish There were other races, rivals of the English, 
race. jggg easily to be reduced than the Dutch or the 
Swedes. One upon the southern border bore the flag of 
Spain, rent and dim indeed, but still the flag of a great 
nation. 

Its col- Yet the colony of the Spaniards was far from 
^'"y- being a great one. St. Augustine, eldest of the 
permanent settlements upon United States soil, was amongst 
the least active of them all. Half garrison, half mission 
in its character, it formed a post where a few troops and a 
few priests kept up the Spanish claim upon Florida. A 
century after its foundation, it was nearly annihilated by 
one of the buccaneering expeditions that were wont to 
ravage the American coast. It rallied, however, especially 
when a treaty between Spain and England put a stop to 
the English commissions with which the buccaneers of the 
time were generally provided, (1670.) 

But there was no good will to speak of between 
with the Spain and England, or amongst their colonies. A 
"^ ^^ ■ force from Florida was soon marching against the 
newly-organized Carolina, a more flagrant incursion, in 
Spanish eyes, upon the territory still claimed by Spfun, 
than any of the northern colonies had made. The expe- 
dition was met and turned back by the resolute Carolinians, 
(1G72.) Some years after, another invasion of the Sp?^- 



SPANISH WARS. 113 

iards effected the destruction of a Scotch settlement just 
made near the Spanish border, (1G86.) These were not 
wars so much as the chastisements intlicted or attempted 
by Florida against its English trespassers. 
j,^^^^ K there was any effect, it was not to dislodge the 

on the intruders, but rather to stimulate the intruded uj)on. 
coony. ]?1qj.J(^jj ^qqJ^ r^ frcslj Start. St. Augustine awoke 
from its slumber, brushed Uf) its means of offence and 
defence, and assumed a new attitude. The surroundino- 
country, still in the hands of the Indians, was dotted over 
with forts and chapels, with soldiers and missionaries. On 
the other side of the peninsula, ujion the Gulf of Mexico, 
Pensacola was reared with fortress and dwellings, (1696.) 
It. seemed as if Spain was at last to occupy our soil with a 
colony worthy of bearing her great name. 
War. Presently war broke out between England with 

Attacks yarious allies on one side, and on the other 

on St. ' 

Angus- Spain and France, (1702.) It was but just heard 
Chlrtrs- ^f "^ South Carolina, when Governor Moore ob- 
to"- tained the consent of the assembly to an attack upon 
St. Augustine. With twelve hundred men, half of them 
Indians, Moore was able to take the town, but not the fort, 
from which he precipitately retreated on the arrival of 
some Spanish men-of-war from Havana, (1702.) Poorly 
as his expedition turned out, Moore, no longer governor, 
headed a second, composed almost entirely of Indians, with 
whom he made a foray amongst the missionary villages of 
Northern Florida without any effective results, (1705.) 
The next year, a naval attack by both French and Span- 
iards upon Charleston was beaten off with great loss, three 
hundred out of eight hundred assailants being killed or 
captured, (1706.) This was the last event of the war, so 
far as the colonies were concerned, although peace was not 
made until seven years later by the treaty of Utrecht, 
(1713.) 10* 



114 PART II. 1638-1763. 

Treaty of '^^^^ treaty is of moment in United States his- 
utrecht. toiy. Tlic war, of which it was the conclusion, 
arose from the attempt of Louis XIV. to scat a prince of 
his own house upon the Spanish throne ; in other words, to 
combine Spain and France in one vast kingdom. So 
menacing was the attempt to Europe, that not England 
alone, but Holland, Germany, both the Empire and Prus- 
sia, Portugal and Savoy armed themselves against it. 
The treaty of Utrecht decided that France and Spain must 
remain separate. Had they been joined, the English colo- 
nies upon our shores would have found it difficult to with- 
stand their united foes. 

Second Five years after, France was on the side of Eng- 

war. i^jj(j in a war with Spain, (1718.) It was caused 

Descents 

onFior- principally by the refusal of Spain to fulfil the 
Ida. Utrecht treaty so far as related to the empire of 

Germany, with which power France and England, and 
then Holland, all alhed themselves. Afterwards, Spain 
and the Empire made peace together, while France, Eng- 
land, and Holland formed a league against them, (1725.) 
Little w^as done either in Europe or in America. Pensa- 
cola was taken and retaken by the French, then in their 
Louisiana settlements, (1719.) It was soon restored, 
(1721.) A force of three hundred, i artly Indians, made 
a sally from Carolina upon the Spanish and Indian villages 
of Florida, (1725.) But the war was without interest or 
effect, and peace returned with the treaty of Seville, 
(1729.) 

Third Then followed the settlement of Georgia, already 

^^•- described as intended to be an outpost against the 
ammor- Spaniards, (1733.) Whatever they thought of this 
''^'^" fresh aggression upon their realm, they seem to 

have said or done nothing for some time ; then General 
Oglethorpe, the head of the Georgian colony, w^as sum- 



SPANISH WARS. 115 

moned to evacuate the territory, (1736.) War bein«» 
declared b}^ England against Spain, chiefly in consequence 
of Spanish depredations ui>on English commerce, Ogle- 
thorpe received orders to invade Florida, (1730.) He 
did so, with a force of twelve hundred men from both 
the Caix)linas and Virginia, as well as from his own prov- 
ince, besides an equal number of Indians, With these, 
and with ti-ains and ships, he laid siege to St. Augustine ; 
but being deserted by most of his Indians, and by many 
of his volunteei-s, he was obliged to abandon tlie enterprise, 
(1740.) A lai^ expedition from England, reenforced, 
first and last, by upwards of four thousand colonial troops, 
was equally unsuccessful against the Spanish strongholds 
in the West Indies, (1740-41.) But the Spaniards them- 
selves did no better in their invasion of Georgia, from 
which they were i*epelled, partly by battle and partly by 
fraud, Oglethorpe being still there, (1741.) After this, 
the Spanish war subsided, nor did the French share in the 
hostihties begin for three years to come, (1744.) Four 
years later, the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle restored things 
to their state before the war, (1748.) 

Fourth ^^'^^st as the last colonial war with Finance was 
^^^- ending, the fourth and last colonial war with Spain 

Cession , rw^, . . , 

of Fiot^ began. This power came nito the contest as the 
"^*- ally of France, in America even more than in 

Europe, the object being to prevent the English expelling 
the French from their American possessions, and then 
turning against the Spaniards, as was apprehended, and 
expelling them from theirs. But the French were already 
driven out; and nothinj]^ interfered with a visjorous onset of 
the English upon the Spaniards. New England and New 
York contributed to the capture of Ha\ana in the open- 
ing year of the war, (1762.) The treaty of Paris, begun 
upon in the same, though not formally completed till the 



116 ' PAUT II. 1638-1763. 

following year, restored Havana to Spain. But it gave 
an immense accession of territory to England and her 
colonies. What France surrendered will appear hereafter. 
Spain ceded Florida, once the whole of North America, 
but now little more than a peninsula of the southern coast, 
(1763.) A royal proclamation of the same year gave 
names and boundaries to East and West Florida, the latter 
province embracing the French cessions east of the Missis- 
sippi. Twenty years after, the Floridas reverted to Spain, 
to be again separated from it at a later period. 

To make some amends to Spain for her losses in 
LouSilna attempting the rescue of France, the latter king- 
andCaii- ^j^jjj gave up her colony of Louisiana. To this 

fornia. . i i • i i 

we shall revert. At nearly the same tune that the 
Spaniards took possession of their acquisition in the east, 
they extended their settlements in the west by establishing 
missions at San Diego and Monterey, California, (17G9.) 

But the Spanish wars, so far as our country was 
of the concerned, were over. They had never arisen, ex- 
Spanish ^^^ ^^ ^j^^ ^^g^ ^^ ^^le last brief war, from any 

wars. '■ . 

consideration of American interests. Nor had they 
called forth any development of American energies either 
in crowded battles or extended campaigns. But they had 
continued, if we date from the first encounters, for nearly 
a century. 



'/ > 



(^„ I,. .1 ^. 
^^ I) ' '^ 




FRENCH! GLAIiiyilS 



CHAPTER VI. 

French Possessions. 

French The great rival of the English race upon our 
*^^- soil reappears. It is time to turn back beyond 
Spanish, Dutch, and Indian wars, nay, beyond the growth 
of the English colonies, to trace the progress of the French 
in America. No other nation, it will be found, not even 
the English, asserted claims or projected achievements of 
fiqual vastness. 

New We left the French the masters of New France 

France, — ^ name of vague extension originally, but subse- 
quently confined, as will be remembered, to Acadie and 
Canada. Acadie beinoj itself shorn of its oriorinal dimen- 
sions, the province of Canada remained the chief division 
of New France. 
„ , The French, like the English colonies, were not 

System ' ^s ' 

of gov- always under the immediate government of the 
ernmen . jjjQ^j^gj. country. An intermediate authority, vested 
in the Company of New France, prevailed for thirty-five 
years, (1627-62.) For twelve years more, a French West 
India Company was commissioned to administer the affairs 
of the colony, (1663-75.) But with these bodies were 
associated some officers of royal appointment, so that there 
was no time when the colony was wholly removed from 
the oversight of the sovereign. Nor was the season during 
which the two companies lasted by any means so long or 
so decisive as the periods of the royal govermiient. New 

(H7) 



118 TART II. 1G38-17G3. 

France, like Old France, was essentially a monarchy, and 
a monarchy in which the monarch was growing out of all 
proportion to the people. Its institutions were of the past. 
A governor general, representing the monarch, with an 
intendant for a prime minister, a council of notables for a 
nobility, and a host of ecclesiastics, with a bishop at their 
head, (from 1659,) constituted the authorities of the col- 
ony. The ruling class amongst the people was that of the 
seigneurs, or lords of the manor ; their tenants, called 
habitans, holding land of them by feudal tenure. No 
press was allowed ; no learning of a liberal nature was 
encouraged. The education of the province was in the 
hands of the religious orders, whose names and numbers 
were almost as manifold as in the mother-land. Under 
these influences, the colony could not but be greatly re- 
stricted. The main body of the people were necessarify 
dependent, unable to act for themselves or for their country, 
the few alone having the will and the power to urge on the 
work of colonization and of dominion. 

Such were the internal drawbacks upon the prog- 
with In- ress of New France. Of those which we may 
diansand ^^\i external, the chief were the relations of the 

English. 

French with the Indians and the English. Those 
with the Indians were of two kinds — with the friendly and 
with the unfriendly tribes. Now it may seem that the 
amicable intercourse of the French with the large propor- 
tion of the natives around them must have been entirely 
conducive to their prosperity. But it did not prove to be 
so, on account, principally, of the tendency of the French 
settlers to sink to the level of their Indian allies, rather 
than to raise these to themselves. The Frenchman, wheth- 
er missionary or soldier, explorer or trader, appeared to 
find a fascination in savage life which he could not resist ; 
and yet it was the vices rather than the virtues of the 



FRENCH POSSESSIONS. 119 

Indian character which he admired and imitated. He 
became indolent, treacherous, morosely cruel, in many in- 
stances far more of a savage than any Indian. As to the 
hostile tribes, it is enough, at the present moment, to name 
the Five Nations, with whom, as will appear hereafter, the 
French were at war for a century. As to the English, it 
must be left to the next chapter to set forth the obstacles 
which they presented to French advancement. It is suffi- 
cient to observe that these hinderances from without, joined 
to those from within, formed a bristling barricade over 
which all the ardor and all the discipline of the French 
character would find it difficult to mount. The stronger 
must have been the impulses to have extended the limits of 
New France so far as we shall now find them. 
, ,. The boundaries of Acadie stretched from the 

Acadie, 

including northern coasts, through all the east of Maine, as far 
as the Kennebec, the French asserted ; as far as the 
Penobscot, the English allowed. With the portions of the 
province in the north we have no further concern than to 
observe that they included all now called Nova Scotia, New 
Brunswick, and Cape Breton, together with indefinite re- 
gions beyond. Maine was but feebly held by the French. 
Missions at the mouth of the Penobscot and on the Kenne- 
bec, with a post or two for trade, comprised all that could 
be called settlements. But for the towns and forts of the 
neighboring parts of Acadie, the east as well as the west of 
Maine would have fallen into English hands. 

Passing over the cities and fortresses of Central 
iildudtng Canada, as foreign to our soil, but not without re- 
^''^ memberinjc their importance, let us pursue the 

York, " , J 

Wiscon- Canadian settlements that were made or attempted 

8in, Mich- ^ actual United States territory. The first to 

igan. ^ "^ 

advance was, as usual, a missionary, Le Moyne, 
who, with a few associates, labored amongst the Five Na- 



120 TART 11. 1638-17G3. 

tions, then at peace. A colony -was founded in AYestern 
New York, but only to be abandoned on account of renewed 
warfare between the French and Indians, (1G56-58.) A 
few years later, Allouez, another missionary, led the way 
up the lakes, and founded the mission of St. Esprit, on the 
southern shore of Superior, in the present Wisconsin, 
(166G.) Two years after, Dablon and Marquette estab- 
lished a mission at Sault Ste. Marie, in the present Michi- 
gan, (1668.) Other missions arose in the adjoining forests 
and on the contiguous shores. After the missionary came 
the trader, and after the trader generally the soldier ; so 
that to the mission house there were added dwellings, bar- 
racks, and, in time, a fort, whose sounding title frequently 
drowned the peaceful name of the mission. Thus was 
Canada extended beyond the St. Lawrence and its tributa- 
ries, beyond all neighborhood of the English colonies, into 
the valleys and the wildernesses of the west. 
„, ,^. Still more distant realms were reached. Father 

The Mis- 
sissippi. Marquette, of the Michigan mission, hearing of a 

great river towards the setting sun, resolved to find 
and to explore it. Before he started, his brethren, Allouez 
and Dablon, penetrated into the interior of Wisconsin and 
Illinois, (1672.) Marquette, with a few companions, found 
the Mississippi, as he had been directed by the natives, and 
sailed upon its waters as far down as Arkansas, (1673.) 
On his return, he established a new mission near the present 
Chicago in Illinois. 

The tidings from the Mississippi kindled new 

plans of trade, new visions of dominion. To begin 
upon them, there soon appeared a Frenchman, La Salle, — 
in youth a Jesuit, in manhood a trader and an adventurer of 
the highest stamp amongst the colonists of New France. 
Repairing to the French court, he obtained a commission to 
complete the discovery of the great western river, in consid' 



FRENCH POSSESSIONS. 121 

cration of M'hicli the monopoly of the fur trade was to be his 
own, (1677.) He soon engaged in his Enterprise; but four 
years of exertion and of disappointment passed over liim, 
before he descended the Mississippi to its mouth and to the 
adjacent coasts. It did not matter that the Spaniard De Soto 
had been tlie discoverer of the river a century and a half be- 
fore the French. They hailed themselves possessors of the 
waters and of the shores, under the name of Louisiana, (1 682.) 
French Thus was Ncw Francc extended from north to 
dominiou. gQ^ith, and from east to west. Wliile the Swedes 
and the Dutch had yielded their hold upon our soil, while 
the Spaniards had contracted theirs to the single comer of 
Florida, while the English had only their New England, 
New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina, 
the whole together forming not much more than a broken 
beach upon the Atlantic, the French dominion stretched 
from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, over vale, and prairie, and 
mountain, far round by the western waters, to the Gulf of 
Mexico. It still needed time, vigor, wisdom, to make this 
mighty empire a reality as well as a name. 
Colony in ^0 time was lost in sending La Salle, who had 
Texas. gone to France to tell his adventurous story, with a 
colony of two hundred, to make a settlement in Louisiana. 
Missing the mouth of the Mississippi, the party were landed 
on what is now the Texan shore, near the present Mata- 
gorda, where they built a fort with the name of St. Louis, 
(1685.) But things went hard with them, and when they 
were reduced to less than a fifth of their original number, 
La Salle found it time to seek relief in Canada. On his 
way thither, with half of his surviving comrades, he was 
foully murdered by one of them, (1687.) The colony of 
St. Louis soon vanished from the earth. 

Twelve years passed before another trial to colonize 
Louisiana. A twofold attempt was then made, one by the 
11 



122 PART II. 1638-1763. 

. English and one by the French. The old grant of 
Missis- Carolana having been bought up hy one of the later 
sippi. New Jersey proprietors, Coxe, he sent, under permis- 
gion of his sovereign, a small squadron to take possession of 
the Mississippi. One of the vessels, sailing up the river, 
was met by a band of Frenchmen, who, by assuring the 
Englishmen that they were in a part of Canada, and not in 
Louisiana, prevailed upon them to turn about at a bend still 
called the English Turn — Detour aux Anglais. So the 
English retired, and the French held their own. They 
vere a party of two hundi'ed in number, under Lemoine 
DTberville, a Canadian of greater gallantry than prudence, 
who, intent upon mines and ti-easures rather than upon tlie 
substantial resources of a colony, chose the sands of Biloxi, 
in what is now Mississippi, for the site of his fort, (1699.) 
The next year, an expedition in search of mines travelled 
up the river as far as the Falls of St. Anthony, first visited 
by some of La Salle's companions twenty years before. 
Colony in The miucs receded ; the sands of Biloxi remained. 
Alabama. DTbcrville, returning from France, whither he went 
twice in quest of supplies, transferred the main body of the 
settlers to Mobile, in the present Alabama, (1702.) But 
DTberville, wIjo, like La Salle, was the life and the soul of 
his company, died, (170G,) and left the colony in a very 
precarious condition. '" Nothing," says the French chroni- 
cler, "was more feeble." The truth was, that France was 
at this time too much occupied in Europe, to say notliing 
of the north of America, to rear a great colony in the wil- 
derness of Louisiana. 

Grant to ^t length the province, extending from the mouth 
of the Mississippi to Lake Michigan, and from the 
English Carolina and the Spanish Florida to the New 
Mexico of Spain, was made over, for the term of fifteen 
years, to Antoine Crozat, a French merchant prince. He 



FRENCH POSSESSIONS. 123 

was to receive a large sum every year from the royal treas- 
ury towards the expenses of the colonial government, besides 
the monopoly of trade to and from the colony. In return, 
he was to send a certain number of vessels and settlers, 
year by year, in order to keep up and to increase the colo- 
nial settlements, (1712.) A faint flush of vigor seemed to 
overspread the struggling colony. 

Meanwhile the settlements in the north-west had 
settle- been extended. The missions of Kaskaskia, (about 
ladllna. ^^^^'^ ^""^ Cahokia, (about 1700,) in our Illinois, 
and the settlement of Vincennes, in our Indiana, 
(about 1705,) had confirmed the occupation of that region. 
A military post was planted at Detroit, the central point in 
the great arc now formed by the French possessions, (1701.) 
Loss of But we have reached a period when the French 

Acadie. possessions were beginning to be contracted. The 
war in the north, to which we must recur, had ended with 
the surrender, according to the treaty of Utrecht, of Acadie 
to England, (1713.) What was thus cut off at the end of 
the line was more than equal, in point of population and of 
settlement, to all that had been added to the middle or to 
the lower end. 

Nor was there any reaction to compensate for the 
Pennsyi- ^^^^s. Canada, it is true, roused herself, building 
vaniaand {qyi^ upou Ncw York territory, at Niagara, (1726,) 
and Crown Point, (1731.) Western Pennsylvania 
was dotted with fortifications, at the same time that others 
were raised through the Ohio valley, (1753.) But the 
most to be gained by these posts was a communication with 
the valley of the Mississippi and with Louisiana, where 
there was little to make the communication of any sensible 
importance. 

Louisiana, soon resigned by Antoine Crozat, had passed 
under the control of the Company of the West, otherwise 



124 PART II. 1638-1763. 

Mississip- known as the Mississippi Company, (1717.) Dur- 
^^^Tcnv^"o the frenzy of its speculations, both the colony 
Orieaivs. and the mother country were inflated, merely to 
collapse with disappointment and disaster. Otherwise, the 
only office rendered by the company to the colony was the 
establishment of its capital at New Orleans, (1718-23.) 
The company soon returned the colony upon the royal 
hands, (1730.) 

Our narrative ends with the final outbreak of hos- 
tile thu-- tilities between the French and the English in 
teen of America, (1754.) Forty years had passed since 
the treaty of Utrecht began the rupture of the 
French possessions; but how much was there still left! 
Beyond the limits of the United States the domains of the 
French were far more valuable, within the same limits 
they were far more extensive, than those of England. 
Over and above the colonies and posts that have been men- 
tioned, the first essays were made, at the epoch in question, 
towards the occupation of our Missouri. Counting by the 
states of a later period, we have thirteen of French * tu 
match with the thirteen of English parentage. 

Enough has been said, however, to explain how 

Vastness ^ . 

and weak- easily the French possessions were extended by ad- 
venture, and yet how slightly they were either held 
or developed by actual settlement. The French dominion 
was as weak as it was vast. It spread over America like a 
cloud brilliant with the morning sunshine ; but, unsubstan- 
tial as a cloud, it was swept by the breeze and rent asunder 
by the storm. 

* Three of each didsion were the same. The French list comprised 
Main°, New York, and Pennsylvania, with Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, 
Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Indiana, Ohio, and Missouri. 



CHAPTER VII. 

French Wars. 

The earliest wars in which the' colonies of 
with In- France enoras^ed were those with the Indians. 



Thpv \vpr< 
tbe north. 



dians in They Were also the longest. From the time 



when Champlain headed a war party of Algon- 
quins against the Five Nations of New York, (1609,) this 
great confederacy was at war with the French, some inter- 
vals of peace excepted, for more than a century. To 
describe the descents upon the Canadian settlements, the 
wild cries and the wilder deeds of battles, the waste and 
the agony of homes, would be but to repeat our previous 
sketches of Indian warfare. Not until the treaty of 
Utrecht restored peace for a time between France and 
England did the Five Nations, then the allies of the 
English, bury the tomahawk that had so long gleamed 
above the heads of the French, (1713.) 
jjj jj^g Later wars with Indians broke out in the 

south. south. The Natchez were beaten, (1729-30,) but 
the Chickasaws could not be subdued, (1736-40.) These 
conflicts, however, were of moment chiefly to Louisiana. 
They did not affect the destinies of the French possessions 
generally. 

Strife be- Exccpt the brief contest with the Spaniards of 
tween the Florida, described in the last chapter but one, the 

French '■ 

and tiie French had no wars to conduct against any Euro- 
Enghsh. pg^j^ ^^^g besides the English in America. This, 
11 * (125) 



126 PART II. 1638-1763. 

it is true, was enough for the French to contend with. 
Enemies for ages past in Europe, these nations turned to 
America in rivalry and contention. It was to outvie each 
other, in a great degree, that they made their settlements ; 
claiming the same lands at the beginning, and extending 
themselves in the same directions as time went on. The 
strife between the two great combatants began at an early 
period, as long ago related, when England, or rather Eng- 
land's colony of Virginia, destroyed the French settlement 
of St. Sauveur, (1613.) Continued by England herself, 
(1628-30,) war produced no effect; her conquests, as was 
mentioned, being surrendered, (1632.) 
indeci- ^^^ wars of the next half century were not a 

sive wars, whit morc dccisivc. One, during the English com- 
monwealth, (1652-56,) reduced Acadie for a time beneath 
the sway of England. Another, after the restoration, 
(1666-67,) brought about nothing except a proposal to 
the New England colonies that they should conquer Can- 
ada. Peace restored Acadie, as far as the Penobscot, to 
France, leaving once more no results from the passion and 
the hostiUty that had been aroused. 

Acts of violence did not cease on either side. 

KlDg 

William's An English trader on Lake Huron was seized, as 
'^^^' a trespasser, by the French, (1687.) At the other 
extremity of New France, the gov^ernor of New England, 
Sir Edmund Andros, made an assault upon the trading 
post of a Frenchman on the Penobscot, (1688.) Each 
race was determined to hold, and, if possible, to increase 
its own. A fresh trial of their strength — the fourth in all, 
but the first in which the colonies of either nation took an 
active part — began with the war called King William's 
by the English colonists, (1689.) As far as concerned 
England, then under William III., the chief cause of the 
war was the support given by Louis XIV. to the lately 



FRENCH WARS. 12? 

dethroned James 11. But Louis had excited in one way 
or another the greater part of JCurope. England was sup- 
ported by the German Empire, Holland, Spain, and Sa- 
voy. From Europe the strife extended to Asia, as well as 
to America. 

The difference between the contending parties in 

Its char- ^ ^ 

acterand America soon appeared. On one side was the 
mother country rather than the colony, the strength 
of France rather than the weakness of Canada and Acadie. 
On the other side was the increasing vigor of New Eng- 
land and New York, supported at one time by grants from 
Maryland and Virginia, and thus presenting an array of 
colonies, rather than a single mother-land. Both sides 
were alike in the allies gathered from the forest and the 
prairie ; the Indians of Canada, Acadie, and Maine follow- 
ing the French, while the English were assisted by the 
forays of the Five Nations along the Canadian lines. 
Indeed, the war was more of an Indian than of a Euro- 
pean one in character. It began with the descents of 
French and Indian war parties upon Schenectady in New 
York, Salmon Falls and Casco in New England, (1090.) 
An expedition from Massachusetts against Acadie, and 
another, partly from New England and partly from New 
York, against Canada, were more regular opei-ations, 
(1690.) The latter scheme was prepared in a convention 
of delegates from Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, 
and New York, held in the last-named colony ; and al- 
though Canada was not invaded, the plans all failing, the 
colonies were united, at least for a season, by new bonds. 
The Massachusetts force, under Sir William Phips, suc- 
ceeded in ravaging Acadie, and even in seizing the eastern 
part of Maine, where a fort was presently constructed at 
Pemaquid, (1692;) but this was retaken in a few years 
by the French under DTberville, (1696,) the same who 



128 PART II. 1638-1763. 

appeared in the south at a hiter time. Peace being made 
between the French and the Five Nations, — who were 
really far more formidable enemies than the English, — 
while the Abenakis of Maine still swept the frontiers of 
New England, a general invasion of the northern colonies 
was planned by the French, (1696-97.) But the appre- 
hensions of the English were happily relieved by the 
treaty of Ryswick between the mother countries, (1697.) 
The war, though lasting eight years, had produced no 
sensible effect upon the relative strength of the parties 
engaged in it, nor had it decided any of the differences 
that had led to it, or that would lead to fresh strife in the 
future. 

Reiio^ious ^^^ ^^ these differences has not yet been brought 
differ- out as it sliould be. Between the French and the 
English there existed the widest and the deepest 
gulf that ever opens between man and man or between 
nation and nation. It was the chasm between opposing 
creeds. Both professed to be Christians ; but the French 
were Catholic, the English Protestant. To the former the 
latter were heretics, the rightful objects of human enmity 
as of divine. To the English Protestant, on the contrary, 
the French Catholic was the minister of a superstition and 
an oppression as hateful to God as to man. It may be 
conceived how much these feelings contributed to whet the 
swords and to blunt the sensibilities of the warriors on 
either side. Sad, indeed, is the grouping of the two nations 
upon the American page, staining it with the passions of 
the old world, the more hateful in the new, because allied 
with the savage and the heathen. 

No marvel, then, that warfare was soon renewed. 

Queen ' ' 

Anne's Four years after the peace of Ryswick, Queen 

Anne's war began, on account, as has been -elated, 

of the designs of Louis XIV. upon the Spanish crown^ 



FRENCH WARS. 129 

(^1702.) Ill America, the same Indian alliances were 
formed, the same Indian hostilities were excited, a,i in the 
preceding contest, except that the Five Nations did not 
take up the hatchet against the French until the war was 
two thirds over, (1700.) There were also the same attacks 
upon the border settlements ; Deerfield (1704) and Haver- 
hill (1708) being both wasted by the Frencli, wliile tiie 
French territory about the Penobscot was scoured l>y the 
English, (1704.) But the war, as a whole, was character- 
ized by greater and more decisive operations. Two expe- 
ditions were directed from New England against Port 
Royal; the first laying waste the adjoining country, (1707,) 
the second capturing the town ; the very name of which 
disappeared in that of Annapolis, (1710.) The first per- 
manent settlement of the French, it ^vas also the first per- 
manent conquest from them by the English. Two expe- 
ditions, likewise, were planned by New England, New 
York, and New Jersey, against Canada ; the first being 
merely planned, (1709,) and the second, though attempted, 
failino" through the inefiiciency of the admiral conducting 
the English force in aid of the enterprise, (1711.) As in 
the last war, so in this, the northern colonies of England 
were arrayed against France rather than her colonies. 
The English colonies of the centre were inactive ; those 
of the south were occupied at this period, as must be 
remembered, with Spanish and Indian hostilities. Twelve 
years having passed in warfare, peace was made at Utrecht, 
and France surrendered Acadie to England, (1713.) The 
war was the first of the five between the two nations to 
make any change in their American possessions. 

New points of collision were appearing in the 

Collision ^ 

in the west. As early as the beginning of the last war, 
^^^^'" a treaty with members of the Five Nations was 
made the basis of an English claim to vast territories. 



130 TART II. 1G38-1763. 

(1701.) To explain the claim on any principles is not 
very easy. It not only made out the Five Nations to be 
the masters of the west, far beyond their own borders, but 
also made out the English king to be the master of the 
Five Nations. A quarter of a century afterwards, a new 
treaty with the same tribes actually transferred to the 
English a portion of the country claimed by them, (1726.) 
Meanwliile the pretensions of the English to the entire 
interior, from the coast on which their colonies were 
planted to the Pacific, had never been abandoned. It was 
their right, they alleged, to jDOssess the western, if they 
occupied the eastern shores. To aid the English advance 
towards the west, a trading post had been established at 
Oswego. It now became a fort, (1727.) But where it 
stood, and where its range, so to speak, was meant to 
extend, the French claimed the sovereignty. 
And in There were also difficulties, both old and neWy 
the east. ari^inoT in the east. The war between the Eno;lish 
and the Abenakis, in which French missions were assailed, 
and a French missionary was murdered, threatened fresh 
hostilities, (1724.) The French, on their side, exasperated, 
perhaps, by the loss of Acadie, were inclined to infringe 
upon English rights. Acadie, they argued, was only the 
peninsula, or what is now called Nova Scotia. But the 
English replied wuth reason, that it was not only the penin- 
sula, but the adjoining mainland, and even the surround- 
ing islands. Yet to these the French held fast, especially 
to Cape Breton, where stood their stronghold of Louisburg, 
by far more important in their eyes, and in those of their 
adversaries, than any of the inconsidenible posts upon the 
territory that had been surrendered. 
^. At lenirth, after a third of a century of nominal 

King ^ •/ 

George's peace, wiir was renewed, (1744.) It was called 
King George's by the English colonists, from 



FRENCH WARS. 131 

George II. His interposition in favor of Austria and Sar- 
dinia, then combined against France and Spain with other 
powers, led to a French declaration" of war ; Spain, as may 
be recollected, being already at war with P^ngland. France 
was now under Louis XV. The French being at peace 
with the Five, now the Six Nations, and the Indians within 
the English limits being much diminished in numbers and 
in spirits, the European races fought their battles more by 
themselves. An expedition, proposed by Massachusetts, 
and supported by men from Connecticut, New Hampsliire, 
and subsequently Rhode Island, as well as by supplies from 
New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, all under the 
command of William Pepperell, of Maine, and all accom- 
panied by a fleet from England, accomplished the reduction 
of Louisburg in less than two months, (1745.) A still 
more extensive campaign was projected for the following 
year, when New^ England, New York, New Jersey, Mary- 
land, and Virginia, with, a grant from Pennsylvania, and an 
armament from England, were to invade Canada ; but the 
English force did not appear, and rumors of a French 
descent upon New England broke up the colonial ranks, 
(1746.) France did little of any kind. Her troops at 
Crow^n Point made some incursions into Massachusetts 
and New York, but the meditated invasion of New Eng- 
land was an utter failure. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle 
closed the war, four years after its outbreak, restoring Cape 
Breton and Louisburg to France, (1748.) 

Peace was soon broken. An attack upon the 
shed in French at Chignecto, on the Isthmus of Nova 
^^'"^ Scotia, caused the first blood to be shed, (1750.) 
Forts rising in various places betokened additional 
conflicts. It was evident that the troubles in the east w^ere 
far from being allayed. 

Nor was the prospect calmer in the west. At the expi' 



132 TART II. 1538-17G3. 

The Ohio ration of the last war, a number of individuals, 
Coinpauy partly Englishmen and partly colonists, associated 
as the Ohio Company, obtained a grant of half a million 
of acres on the eastern bank of the Ohio River, (1749.) 
Virginia, whose governor was interested in the enterprise, 
took the lead in the treaties with the Indians and the nego- 
tiations with the French required by the plans of the com- 
pany. But the French were not to be made friends of on 
that ground. They attacked an Indian settlement where 
some EngUsh traders had found refuge, and seized them as 
prisoners, (1752.) They then assailed the troops of the 
Ohio Company. A Virginia party, sent to construct a fort 
at the head of the Ohio, was driven back by a French 
force, who completed the fortification, and called it Fort 
Du Quesne, (1753-54.) 

A larger band, already on the march from Vir- 
shed in gi^i^ ^o the disputed territory, was soon engaged in 
Pennsyi- battle wnth the French upon Pennsylvanian soil. 

vania. ftm n 

George The first cncountcr between detachments from both 
Washing- g-^jgg resulted in the defeat of the French ; but 

ton. 

the second, between the main bodies at the Great 
Meadows, ended in the retreat of the Virginians. They had 
been bravely led, their leader being George Washington. 
An envoy of })eace to the French before he thus appeared 
as an officer in war, he was the same in cliaracter, if not 
in experience, that he showed himself to be in after years. 
He was now but twenty-two. 

The final It, was the final struggle that had thus begun on 
strng<!;ie. ^j^g sliorcs of Nova Scotia and in the forests of 
Pennsylvania. The mother countries came into collision 
in the following year, (1755.) Tlien the English fleet took 
some French transports off Newfoundland, and followed up 
the attack by scouring the seas. The land forces were 
equally active. One array, partly of colonial and partly 



FRENCH WAHS. 133 

of English troops, marched under General Braddock to 
defeat near Fort Du Quesne. Another, exclusively colo- 
nial, first under General Lyman, and then under Sir Wil- 
liam Johnson, with Mohawks in the train, routed tlie 
French under Baron Dieskau at Lake George, and built 
Fort William Henry. But they made no attempt at the 
reduction of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, against which 
they had originally started on their march. Another colo- 
nial force under the English General Shirley, setting out 
to reduce Fort Niagara, ventured no farther than Oswego. 
The only expedition to succeed was one that even the 
victors might afterwards wish to have failed. Not content 
with forcing the French troops to evacuate their forts on 
the Isthmus of Nova Scotia, which was done by a force 
from Massachusetts, aided by a few hundred English sol- 
diers, the conquerors decided to drive the entire population 
of the territory into exile. Seven thousand miserable 
creatures, separated from their families, and bereft of their 
possessions, were thj'own upon the charity of the English 
colonies, where every association, religious and social, 
national and individual, was against them. Thus opened 
the war, (1755.) It was formally declared in the spring 
of the following year, (1756.) 

Like the last of the Spanish wars, which broke 

Extent. . . 

out in connection with this, the last French war 
sprang from American causes, at least to a great degree. 
Actual hostilities occurred in America near six years 
sooner than in Europe. But Europe did not sit looking 
across the seas. She armed herself for her Seven Years' 
War, a 5 it was styled. Prussia was on the side of England, 
Austria on that of France. Russia and Sweden took 
part against Prussia, rather than for f^ngland. After 
Spain came in on the French side, Portugal declared in 
favor of the English. Germany was the cliief scene of 
12 



134 PART II. 1638-1763, 

action in Europe. Asia and Africa also furnished battle 
grounds. 

American operations were for some time yet 

Losses i *' 

of t!ie more adverse to tlie English than those already 
described. Niagara, Crown I'oiiit, and Dii Quesne 
continued the objects of attack and or' defence ; but far 
from being able to take them, the English were unable to 
defend their own posts. The fort at Oswego yielded to the 
Marquis of IMontcalm the same year that war was declared, 
(175G.) The next year, (1757,) Montcalm was the master 
of Fort William Henry. Thus, after four campaigns, (1754 
-57,) the English were retiring before the French. Yet 
the resources of the English had been infinitely greater 
than those of their foes. Canada, which bore the brunt of 
war, did not contain more than twenty thousand effective 
troops ; and even these were in danger of becoming ineffec- 
tive by their isolation from the mother country, on wliich 
the French colonists were ever wont to rely. 

It Avas not surprising, therefore, that the renewed 

Their 

fiub.se- exertions of England, and above all of her colonies, 
queiit i^y ^viiich alone twenty thousand men were now 

victories. *^^ '' 

raised, should repair the losses of the preceding 
years. Louisburg was the first prize, the whole Gulf of 
St. Lawrence being taken possession of immediately. Fort 
Frontenac, on the northern shore of Ontario, and Fort Du 
Quesne were found deserted. Amongst those who marched 
against the latter fortress, only to see it in ruins, was Wash- 
ington, then at the head of the Virginian forces. There, 
where he had fought his first battles, where he had been 
twice obliged to retreat, once in command and once in 
Braddock's staff, he now made his last appearance in the 
war. His strength was reserved for a greater conflict. 
All tliese acquisitions of the Engli.-h were made in one 
year, (1758.) The next brought the abandonment of 



FRENCH WARS. 135 

Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and Niagara, and more mo- 
mentous Ttill, the surrender of (4uebec, after the great 
Montcalm's defeat by the troops whom the greater Wolfe 
had led to amazing victory, (1709.) The two years, 
together, decided the war. 

But it continued a year or two to come. An 
«iontf attempt of the French to regain Quebec being 
the uar. ^.g^yig^^j^ Montreal soon after capitulated to the 
English, who were acknowledged conquerors of Canada, 
(17G0.) All but a few posts in the farther we-t were 
surrendered to them within the following year, (1761.) 
Meanwhile operations, previously commenced, were re- 
newed against the French West Indies by an armament 
composed in part of colonial troops ; the islands of the 
Caribbean group being all captured, (1759-62.) There 
was no such thing as fighting against reverses like these. 
After twelve years of actual warfare, the French made 
peace ; the treaty of Paris ceding to England all east of 
the Mississippi save three little islands, St. Pierre and the 
Miquelons, in the north, and New Orleans in the south ; 
Ihis last, with all west of the same river, being transferred 
to Spain, whose part in the war has been previously 

described, (1763.) 

The French colonists were loath to give up the 
Fr'..h territory which their mother country had surren- 
^'^''''"- dered. Such of the western posts as were not 
not already in possession of the English did not come 
under their new masters for a year or two, (1765.) In- 
deed, it was some months after the treaty that a French 
party under Pierre Laclede established a new settlement 
at St. Louis, in our Missouri, upon the lands ceded to Spain, 
(1761.) Several years more passed before the Spaniards 
installed themsehes in Western Louisiana, (1768.) But 
the French nation had played its part as a power on United 



136 TART II. I638-I763. 

States territory. Not the less lasting, however, were the 
influences tliat had arisen from its possessions and its w^ars 
while they endured. 

The issue of the French wai*s needs little com- 
aiid Eng- Hicnt after what has gone before. The English, in 
lishcom- t]2eir compact colonies, resembled a man in full 
armor, in contending w^ith whom, the French, scat- 
tered over their disjointed settlements, were like a knight 
protected by nothing but fragments of his coat of mail. 
The Englishman, moreover, stood strong in himself, strong 
in his colony even more than in his mother land ; but the 
Frenchman leaned upon the distant France, with all his 
enterprise a dependent colonist, with all his gallantry a 
submissive subject. So much for the causes and contrasts 
that were at work in America. If we return to Europe, 
w^e shall find France too much engaged in ambition and in 
battle there to put forth her strength for the defence of 
colonies as languishing in fact as they were magnificent 
in form. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Colonial Development. 

Deveio ^^^ Eiigli.^h territory was immensely increased 

mentof by the successful wars that have been described, 
em ory. ^^^ ^vcre its limits extended solely at the expense 
of neighboring domains. Within the boundaries already 
belonging to the colonies of England, there had been a large 
accession to the lands formerly occupied. New fields were 
brought into cultivation ; new towns were formed ; new 
means of communication were opened between the old habi- 
tations and the new. 

Ofoccii- The development of territory arose chiefly from 
patiou. |j^(3 development of occupation. As the numbers 
and wants of the colonists multiplied witli time, they found 
fresh ways of employing and of enriching themselves. The 
seaboard was lined with merchants and traders ; the interior 
was filled with farmers and ]jlanters ; while around them 
all were clustered the artisans and the laborers whose ser- 
vices were needed to complete the circle of toil. Few men, 
or even women, in the early period, were without some 
laborious pursuit ; few, as wealth increased and individuals 
grew to be above the necessity of labor, laid aside industry 
altogether. In one light, the entire people is seen exerting 
itself to improve the soil, to build up the dwelling, to enlarge 
the limits of commerce, of trade, and of manufacture. How 
successful these exertions were, appears from the steady 
gi'owth of the colonies in resources and in possessions. 
12* (137) 



138 TART II. 1638-1763. 

urhabits The habits of the colonists wert long of the sim- 
ofiife. plest nature. Little space for liberality or for lux- 
ury could be found in a new land crowded with its ever- 
recurring demands for sobriety and for self-denial. Wher^ 
ever men lived, in the httle knot of cottages that was called 
a town, in the scattered villages of the country, in the iso- 
lated posts of the frontier, they had a narrow life before 
them. Afterwards things changed, and in many a spacious 
enclosure there arose dwellings of greater comfort and of 
greater pretension. As the strict rules of the primitive 
period were loosened, there was also more frequent and 
more genial intercourse amongst men and amongst women. 
Without falling into extravagance, the wealthy found new 
objects of expenditure. Without yielding to idleness, the 
poorer classes found new means of relaxation. The change 
was for the better, physically and mentally. It relieved the 
nerves that had been tightly strung. It enlarged the inter- 
ests that had been closely confined. If it did away with 
the primitive simplicity, it also did away with the primitive 
ruggedness of life. Time was gained for thought, for cul- 
ture, for expansion. 

Of educar The sourccs of education had been opened at an 
**°°- early period. The first laws of Massachusetts pro- 
vided for the schoolmaster and the school, each township of 
fifty families being bound to maintain a teacher of reading 
and writing, while each of a hundred families was called 
upon to set up a grammar school, (1645-47.) The exam- 
ple was generally imitated throughout New England. 
Some of the central colonies were equally on the alert, 
Pennsylvania, especially, making provision from the first for 
public schools, (1G85-89.) IMaryland was much later in 
the field, proposing schools long before she established them, 
and laying them, when established, under the restriction of 
being taught only by members of the church of England, 



COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT. 139 

(1723.) The southern colonics were mostly behindhand 
in the matter of education. Soutli Carolina was amongst 
the earhest to organize public schools, (1721 ;) but these, 
like the scliools of almost all the country, were of a very 
limited design. Private instruction being preferred by the 
richer colonists, the schools were left to the middle and 
lower classes, whose interest was not strong enough to sup- 
port them. 

The patronage of the upper classes turned to the 
Colleges, ^Qijgggg which began with Harvard, in Massachu- 
setts. Virginia, after depending upon a Latin school at 
New Amsterdam, bestirred herself to have a seminary of 
her own. At the instance of the Bishop of London's com- 
missary, — the ecclesiastical head of the province, — James 
Blair, the long-sleeping project of a college was revived. 
The aid of the king was invoked ; and he granted a charter, 
with donations in money and lands, to create a corporation, 
whose chief charge it should be to provide instruction for 
such as proposed to take orders in the established church. 
A department was also to be organized for the education of 
Indians. The royal names of William and Mary, then king 
and queen, were bestowed upon the rising institution, 
(1691.) Connecticut soon had her Yale College, (1700 ;) 
New Jersey her College of New Jersey, (1738-46 ;) New 
York her King's College, (1754;) and Pennsylvania her 
Academy, (1750,) afterwards the University of Pennsyl- 
vania. These institutions became the centres of quite an 
amount of intellectual activity. 

Of the The printing press had long been at work. The 

press. ^j.g^ ^Q \yQ g(.j. yp ^y^g ^^ Cambridge in JNlassachu- 

setts, (1639.) But it was under so much restraint that it 
can hardly be said to have exerted any general influence. 
The importation of books was under similar hinderances, 
certain volumes being ab;.olutely prohibited, (1854.) Not* 



140 • PART II. 1G33-1763. 

withstaiuling, the trade seemed to flourish, there soon being 
as many as four bookstores in Boston, Avhile Hbraries were 
gathenng on a small scale, (1686.) The first newspaper 
of the colonies was a diminutive sheet, issued once a week, 
under the title of the Boston News Letter, ( 1 704.) No other 
press kept pace with that of Massachusetts. The royal 
governor of Virginia, Sir William Berkeley, made it a boast 
that under him " there are no free schools nor printing." 
*' God keep us," he profanely added, " from both I " (1671.) 
Not many years after, the owner of a press introduced into 
the colony was bound over to make no use of it until the 
royal pleasure could be consulted. The royal pleasure 
turned out to be, that the press and its proprietor should 
leave Virginia, (1682-83.) 

Official in- The increasing activity of the press is proved by 
teiference. nothing more clearly than the continued interfer- 
ence to which it was subject from the colonial officials. In 
time, the governors of the royal provinces were regularly 
instructed to allow no printing without their special license, 
(1702.) It was virtually the same in all the colonies. In 
Pennsylvania, a printer w^as called to account for one of his 
publications in such a way as to suggest a retreat to Nevv- 
York, (1692.) Thirty years subsequently, the publisher of 
the Philadelphia Mercury, the only newspaper out of Bos- 
ton, was obliged to apologize for an article displeasing to 
the governor and the council, (1722.) "I'll have no print- 
ing of your address," says Governor Shute of Massachu- 
setts to the House of Representatives, on their remonstrating 
against his proceedings ; " the press is under my control." 
But he did not succeed in preventing the printing, or even 
in bringing the printers to trial, (171 9.) It was not because 
the Massachusetts press was free. On the contrary, within 
a very few years, Benjamin Franklin, then a boy of seven- 
teen, was admonished by a joint committee of the council 



COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT. '141 

and the house for certain articles of his in his brother 
James's paper, the New England Couraut ; James himself 
having been thrown into jail for a month in consequence of 
publishing animadversions upon the colonial administration, 
(1723.) Cosby, governor of New York, went farther than 
►Shute against the frot'dom of the press. His council, with 
whom he was having a violent dispute, took to a new-pa- 
per, the Weekly Journal, of which John Peter Zenger was 
the publisher. The governor, although he had his organ in 
the New York Gazette, determined ihat the council should 
be deprived of theirs, and that Zenger should be punished. 
After an imprisonment of eight months, Zenger was tried 
for libel, and escaped condemnation only by the exertions of 
his counsel, Andrew Hamilton, of Pennsylvania. The little 
sympathy that there was with Zenger on the score of a free 
press may be conceived from the fact that, though acquit- 
ted, he M^as left to bear the losses of his imprisonment, 
(1732-33.) 

Editions of It was a striking proof of advancing energies 
the Bible, ^i^^i- ^i^^ Boston prcss gave in issuing an edition of 
the Bible, the privilege of printing the English version 
being a monopoly of the Universities of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge. The Boston edition bore the imprint of the king's 
printer in London, (about 1752.) A German Bible had 
been already printed in Germantown, Pennsylvania, (1743.) 
iiiteiiec- "^^^ intellectual development of the colonies was 
tuai <ie- altogether of a grave cast. To trace it in action, 
meat: in wc are obliged to follow the men of the time into 
action, circumstanccs where exertion, anxiety, and devour- 
ing care exclude all lighter aspects. We seldom find the 
gracetul mind or the sportive spirit ; it is all solemn delib- 
eration, weighty argument, the natural methods of dealing 
with subjects so serious and relations so momentous as 
those in which the colonists were involved. 



142 PART II. 1638-1763. 

In lite ra- Pass from men of action to men of contemplation, 
^^^'^- and the same signs apjx'ar. Tlie primitive writings 
tiT'at of matters of life and death to their authors. AVhether 
it is the chronicler, like Governor Bradford, of Plymoutli, 
or the traveller, like John Lederer, in Virginia, each 
wears a sober countenance and tells a sober story. If we 
penetrate into the mazes of witchcraft literature, as much 
of the early New England writings may be styled, we find 
that what look to us like the wildest hallucinations then ap- 
peared the sternest facts. Imagination, it is true, had much 
to do with them ; but it was imagination excited to that 
degree in which the unreal seems more true than the n^al. 
At a later time, the colonial literature assumed lighter 
forms. There were writers of travels, of essays, even of 
poems, to some of which we shall presently advert. But 
tlie chief men of letters were still of grave mien ; indeed, 
there was hardly one out of the clerical ranks. The influ- 
ence of clergymen upon literature as upon life was very 
sensible for many years beyond the period of which we 
treat. At the head, perhaps, of the colonial writers, was the 
theologian and the metaphysician Jonathan Edwards, a 
native of Connecticut and a minister of Western Massachu- 
setts, whose treatise on the Freedom of the Will reads like a 
plea for all the gravity of learning as well as for all the 
severity of dogma then vanishing away. 
In sci- Science found its earnest votaries. There was 

*'"*^'^- one, indeed, whose inquiries were so resolute and so 
brilliant as to throw lustre over the whole country. Benja- 
min Franklin, a student and a writer from his early youth, 
at the same time that he was a hard-working printer, solved 
the myst(?ries of the thunder cloud, into which, frequently 
as it appeared, science had not then actually penetrated, 
(1752.) Nor were his electrical discoveries the only re- 
sults of his scientific attaimnents. A sometime neighbor of 



COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT. 143 

Franklin, Jolin Bartram, of Penn-yhaiiia, whom the great 
Linni\?us called "the first natural botanist in the world," 
was the creator of a botanic garden near Philadelphia, and 
at the same time the explorer of the whole country from 
Canada to P^iorida, (1751-6G.) His son, AVilliam Bar- 
tram, continued the w^ork begun by the father, leaving an 
account of his own journeyings as full of freshness as the 
forests and the plains which he explored. Another branch 
of science was nobly cultivated by John Winthrop, a de- 
scendant of the Massachusetts governor, who occupied the 
chair of mathematics and natural philosophy at Harvard 
College. His astronomical observations, continued for many 
years, (1740-79,) enlarged the sphere of knowledge in 
Europe as well as in America. 

Art, even in its lower forms, was hardly recog- 
nized. The dramatic exhibitions, attempted at a 
late day in Boston, w^ere instantly interrupted by the Puri- 
tan authorities, (1749.) In the towns and colonies more 
tolerant of amusement, there was nothing better than a 
strolling company, which was obliged to wander in turn 
from New^port to Williamsburg, (1752.) The first dramatic 
composition of the country was the Prince of Parthia, 
(1759,) a tragedy by Thomas Godfrey, a native of Phila- 
delphia, w'hose poetic as{)irations were much more success- 
ful than those of his countrymen before him. A few mu- 
sical instruments, a piece or two of ordinary sculpture, a 
larger proportion of paintings, might be found in the more 
refined mansions. The first organ for a church encountered 
so great opposition in Boston that it remained unpacked for 
several months after its arrival from England, (1713.) 
Thirty years afterwards, an organ of considerable excellence 
Avas constructed in ]>oston itself by Edward Bromfield, 
(1745.) The musical publications of the period, beginning 
with " The Cantus or Trebles of twenty-rM-ht Psalms," 



144 PART II. 1G38-17G3. 

urxler the supervision of Rev. John Tafts, of Newhiiry, 
(1710,) were chiefly conlined to psahnotly. Portrait paint- 
ers were making their appearance ; the first two, AVatson 
and Smybert, being both from Scotland. John Singleton 
Copley, a native of Boston, and Benjamin West, a native 
of Springfield, in Pennsylvania, gave better promise of the 
art that Avas yet to walk in beauty through the nation. 
, ^ The intellectual pro<2;ress of the colonies was 

ces from scusibly affectcd by influences from abroad. Not 
abroad, j^^.j^^^.j^ []^^^ ^]^q literature, the science and the art of 
other countries were within the reach of the new people, 
but that they were actually brought to its door, so to s})cak, 
by sojourners from beyond the sea. An English naturalist, 
Mark Catesby, was a visitor to Virginia and South Caro- 
lina, (1712-22.) A Swedish man of letters, Peter Kalm, 
travelled through all the central colonies, (1748-51.) His 
name still dwells amongst us in the kabnia, a genus of 
plants embracing our beautiful mountain laurel. A group 
of clerical visitors came at about the same time. George 
Berkeley, afterwards Bishop of Cloyne, spent some years 
(1729-31) at Newport, spreading around him the influences 
of a cultivated and a devout spirit. He tarried there on 
the way to the Bermudas, where he hoped in vain to found 
a college for the youth, Indian and English, of America. 
Georgia was visited by the Wesleys, John and Charles, 
(1736-37,) then just entering upon their efforts as reform- 
ers in the English church. George Whitefield, at first the 
churchman and then the sectary, traversed the whole land 
from north to south ; his appeals to the people resulting in 
revivals, as the phrase went, which Avere repeated until the 
charm began to lose its power, but not before it had greatly 
loosened the hold of ancient doctrines, (1738-70.) 
Liberality Of all the progrcss that we have to notice, no 
in religion point is more remarkable tlum the increasing lib- 



COLONIAL DEYii>LOPMENT. 145 

erality in religion. It was beginning to be seen that men 
might be fellow-Christians without being fellow-churchmen 
or fellow-Puritans. Dissenters found toleration in the 
church-province of Virginia, (1698.) On the other hand, 
the Puritan churches made peace with their antagonists. 
Cotton Mather, preaching at the ordination of a Baptist, 
expresses " our dislike of every thing which looked like per- 
secution in the days that have passed over us," (1718.) 
Churchmen in Massachusetts were released from Puritan 
tithes, (1727.) Baptists and Quakers were both released 
from the same tithes in Massachusetts, (1728,) New Hamp- 
shire, (1729,) and Connecticut, (1729,) the hist colony, 
how^ever, continuing the restrictions upon separate places of 
worship. Even the Roman Catholics had their crumb of 
toleration. On their celebrating mass in Philadelphia, the 
governor proposed to enforce the penalties of the English, 
not the Pennsylvanian, law against them ; but tlie council 
opposed the proceeding, on the ground that the Roman 
Catholics were protected in the charter of the colony, 
(1734.) The air seems to grow freer as we meet with such 
a record. But it was not yet purified. Charles Carroll, a 
Roman Catholic of Maryland, found himself so hemmed in 
by illiberahty, that he petitioned the French government 
for a grant in Louisiana, (1751.) 

Church of The churcli of England — the moderate church 
England, ^f |.}^g reformation — was the mean, as formerly de- 
scribed, between the extremes of the Roman and the Prot- 
estant sides. But, as the Roman church was hardly repre- 
sented in the colonies, the church of England appeared to 
occupy, not so much a mean as an extreme position, the 
opposite to the extreme of Puritanism. It was, therefore, 
the great foe of Puritanism, just as Puritanism w^as its 
great foe. Both the churchman and the Puritan found it 
hard to bear and to forbear with each other, the more so as 
13 



146 TART II. 163S-17G3. 

♦ 

tlie cliurcli of England increased, and assumed the lead. 
John Checkley, preparing to be a church missionary, tlirew 
the Puritan clergy of Boston into quite an excitement, by 
taking upon himself to say that there could be " no Chris- 
tian minister without episcopal ordination," (1724.) So, 
when the Massachusetts ministers, headed by Cotton Mather, 
petitioned tlie General Court that a synod of their churches 
might be convened, as in former days, the church clergy 
appealed to England for the suppression of the proposed 
assembly, (1725.) It was not merely ill will that these 
proceedings kindled ; it was apprehension of oppression. 
Project of Dissenters generally, but with the Puritans still 
bishops, jj-j jIj^ van, stood arrayed against a project in which 
the church of England was deeply interested. As early as 
the reign of Charles IL, a bishop for Virginia had been 
nominated at the instigation of the prime minister Claren- 
don, (1672.) It proved merely a nomination. Thirty 
years passed, when the Society for Propagating the Gospel 
in Foreign Parts (1701) took up the matter, partly in con- 
sequence of applications from the churchmen of the colonies, 
(1703.) It was twelve years more before tlie society, after 
petitions to and answers from Queen Anne, undertook " a 
draught of a bill, proper to be offered to the Parhament, 
for establishing bishops and bishoprics in America," (1715.) 
The queen's death interfering with the execution of these 
projects, they were laid aside, resumed, and then laid aside 
again until some of the English prelates, members of the 
society still, espoused the cause so full of interest to them 
and to their church. Their plan, drawn up by Bishop 
Butler, of Durliam, was not one, it would seem, to provoke 
opposition. It suggested the limitation of the episcopal 
power to the clergy in orders, declaring, at the same time, 
that " no bishops are intended to be settled in places where 
the government is in the hands of dissenters, as in New 



COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT. 147 

England," &c. Such, however, were the difficulties attend- 
ing the scheme, even in this modified form, that it failed, 
(1750.) Its advocates, joined or succeeded by others, did 
not give up the hope of carrying their point at a future 
time. But the passions of the colonists, as well from politi- 
cal as from religious causes, fan too high to admit of further 
provocation. Nor were dissenters only arrayed against the 
plan of the episcopate. Churchmen were almost equally 
earnest, on account, chiefly, of the jealousy entertained in 
relation to the mother country. So that when, at a later 
time, the Bishop of London's commissary for Virginia 
called a convention of his clergy, to discuss an address to 
the king, " upon an American episcopate," certain clergy- 
men, who protested against the proposal, received the 
thanks of the House of Burgesses for their course, (1771.) 
The clergy of Virginia, however, and the Burgesses had 
long been on poor terms, in consequence of certain acts 
passed by the latter to the detriment of clerical revenues, 
indeed, to the violation of clerical rights, (1755-58.) The 
church of England, it must be confessed, was far from being 
a church of peace in the colonies. 

Classes: Th© classcs in the colonies remained the same as 
the slaves, heretofore. But the relations between them were 
varying with their members and their numbers. Amongst 
the echoes from those distant years we catch the sounds of 
sympathy for the enslaved. Some German, not English, 
Quakers of Pennsylvania began by declaring against the 
whole system of slavery, (1688.) An English Quaker of 
the same colony was stirred to make the same declaration ; 
but his remonstrance was mingled with fanaticism and sedi- 
tion, (16^2.) A few years later, Pennsylvania pronounced 
against the importation of Indian bondmen, (1705.) Mas- 
sachusetts passed a similar prohibition, (1712.) But when 
Pennsylvania, or a portion of its people, petitioned for 



148 PART II. 1638-1763. 

the general emancipation of the slaves in the proviin-e, the 
assembly rejected the proposal, (1712.) The skives did 
not every where sit still while the masters legislated. New 
York was thrown into terror by a negro plot to fire the 
city, (1712.) South Carolina was twice threatened by a 
negro massacre, (1730, 1738.) It was not to be expected, 
with all the advantages or all the alleviations of slavery in 
the English colonies, that the system was to escape the 
dangers and the wrongs to which it had led in every land 
and in every age of its history. One earnest voice was 
lifted up against it in the colonies by John Woolman, of 
New Jersey, a Quaker of singuhir refinement as well as 
singular simplicity, who pubHshed Some Considerations 
on the Keeping of Negroes, towards the* close of the pe- 
riod, (1753.) AYoolman's Journal of his life and his devo- 
tions should be mentioned as one of the most attractive 
works in our early literature. 

Colonies: Between colony and colony there were new bands 
union, ^f union. Suggestions of combining them in some 
common organization had appeared from time to time. 
The first project of the sort, on the part of the colonies, 
was of William Penn's proposal. lie urged a congress of 
twenty members, to be elected by the colonial assemblies, 
with a president appointed by the king. This body was to 
keep the peace amongst the colonies, to regulate tlieir com- 
merce, and to secure their defence, (1697.) A quarter of a 
century later, Daniel Coxe, of New Jersey, brouglit forward 
a plan of much the same nature, (1722.) Thirty years 
later, the deputies of seven colonies — the four of New 
England, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland — met 
at Albany on the recommendation of the secretary of state 
in England, (1751.) The subjects before this assembly 
were the relations of the colonies with tlie Indians and witli 
one another, referring chiefly to the war then opening 
between England and France. It was to promote the mil' 



COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT. 149 

itary rather tlian the civil union of the colonies, that Benja- 
min Franklin, a deputy from Pennsylvania, laid his pro- 
posals before the convention. He suggested a council of 
forty-eight, apportioned to the contributions of each colony, 
who were to conduct the affairs of war, and, to a certain 
extent, the affairs of peace ; the members, cliosen for three 
years, by the colonial assemblies, to elect their own speaker, 
but to be under a president, or governor general, nominated 
by the crown. This system suited neither those who favored 
nor those who opposed the interests of the colonies, the ap- 
pointing power and the veto, with which the president was 
armed, being deemed as unfavorable to colonial Hberty as 
the rights of the council were to royal prerogative. It was 
at the same time that the king commanded one of his min- 
isters, the P^arl of Halifax, to prepare a plan of colonial 
union. Each colony was to elect, by common consent of 
assembly, council, and governor, a single commissioner to 
a federal body, by which a revenue was to be raised and 
t)ie general defence assured. A commander-in-chief was 
to be placed at the head of the government, which, as we 
see^ was a merely military organization. Union was not 
to be achieved by a fluctuating succession of projects hke 
these. 

Contrib "^^^^ Sympathy existing amongst the colonies ap- 
tious to pears on another record than that of systems or 
°**°°' assemblies. A great fire, breaking out in Boston, 
caused immense loss and immense distress, (1760.) What 
Boston itself could do Avas promptly done ; its people were 
not in the habit of giving up, however severe the trial. 
But there came a large sum from New York, another from 
Pennsylvania, besides one from Nova Scotia, and various 
subscriptions from England. The colonial contributions to 
Boston proved that there were bonds, if not yet drawn 
together, still capable of being tightened, closely and last- 
ingly, amongst the colonies. 



Views 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Mother Country. 

As the colonies passed through the struggles of 

of the infancy into tlie promises of manhood, they wore a 

mother j^^-^^^ look in the sio-ht of the mother country. Some- 
country. _ ^ *' 

thing more than had been anticipated was to be 

hoped, something more also was to be feared from them. It 
seemed as if they might be able to contribute largely to the 
resources of Great Britain ; and yet it seemed as if they 
might think themselves able to withhold as well as to con- 
tribute. Strange symptoms of insubordination had appeared. 
The crown, the parliament, and the oificials by Avliich both 
were represented, had been confronted, here and there, with 
amazing boldness. It was high time, so thought the English 
rulers, to take the colonies in hand, to tighten the reins of 
government, and to confine them to the course marked out. 
as it was thought, by the interests of the mother country. 
Board of Chief of the agencies put in operation was the 
trade. board of trade, consisting of a president and seven 
members, entitled the Lords Commissioners for Trade and 
Plantations, (1G96.) To this body were committed the 
functions hitherto exercised by committees of the privy 
council, but now magnified into large powers of administra- 
tion. It was intrusted with the execution of the navigation 
acts, to which were at thi^ time appended fresh and oppres- 
sive provisions of colonial Courts of Admiralty. It was also 
empowered to carry out the new acts by which not merely 

(150) 



THE MOTHER COUNTRY. 151 

tlie trade but the administration of the colonies was to be 
brought under stricter control. The royal approval of all 
colonial governors, and the conformity of all colonial laws 
to the statutes of Parliament, were amongst the lir.-t ste[)S to 
be taken. The board entered heartily into its mission. It 
proposed the appointment of a captain general with abso- 
lute power to levy and to organize an army without refer- 
ence to any colonial authority, (1G1)7.) It laid a prohibition 
upon the exportation of colonial woollens, even from one 
colony to another, (1698.) It actually went so far as to rec- 
ommend the resumption of the charters that remained to 
some of the colonies, (1701.) Time and again, a bill was 
brought into Parliament to declare the charters void ; but, 
for one reason or another, the design was postponed. The 
board of trade, approving itself by its zeal, became a sort of 
mnnisterial body on being attached to a secretary of state as 
its chief, (1714.) Its course, however, was not improved. 
The secretary longest in office (1724-48) — the Duke of 
Newcastle — supposed New England to be an island. The 
board of trade acted as if they thought all the colonies a 
broken cluster off the British coast. 

African About the samc time that the board of trade was 
Company, organized, the Royal African Company, previously 
a monopoly, was so enlarged as to allow general participa- 
tion in its operations. What these were appears from its 
name. But the name gives no indication of the near con- 
nection of the company with the American colonies, of 
their restiveness, and of its oppressiveness. " Give due 
encouragement," say the royal instructions of Queen Anne 
to the governor of New York and New Jersey, " to mer- 
chants, and, in particular, to the Royal African Company," 
(1702.) "The slave trade," reechoes Parliament, half a 
century afterwards, in making the trade independent of the 
African Company, "is very advantageous to Great Britain," 



152 PART II. 1G38-1763. 

(1750.) It was, in fact, a cardinal point in the treaties of 
England with the European powers. The treaty of Utrecht 
contained a contract on the part of Spain that her colonies 
t^liould be provided with slaves by Great Britain alone, 
(1713.) The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was followed by a 
convention indemnifying Great Britain, to the amount of a 
hundred thousand pounds, for relinquishing the monopoly 
of the slave trade with the Spanish colonies, (1750.) The 
closer was the gripe upon the English colonies. Vainly 
did Virginia and South Carolina, for instance, lay a prohib- 
itory duty upon the importation of slaves ; their acts were 
annulled by the royal command. And by what reasoning, 
it will be asked, were the advantages of the traffic upheld 
in the mother country? The answer is simple. In the 
first place, the profits of the African Company and of the 
private slave traders were enormous. In the second place, 
the dependence of the colonists in agriculture, manufacture, 
and trade, as Avell as in government, was assured, so long 
as they were kept to slave labor. This was openly avowed 
in England ; so that, resist as they would, the colonies were 
at the mercy of the Royal African Company as long as it 
endured. 

Colonial ^^^^ boards and companies of the mother country 
govern- found congcnial instruments in the governors of the 
various colonies. All but those whom the colonists 
were able to elect for themselves, as in Connecticut and 
Rhode Island, may be said, as a general remark, to have 
been the main stays of the policy pursued by the Enghsh 
;uithorities. A needier, greedier set of men was never sent 
forth to rule than the spendthrift courtiers, the broken- 
down officials, and the cringing colonists, who successively 
appeared in the scramble after colonial spoils. 

An illustration offers itself in the career of Edward 
Ilyd<% Lord Cornbury, grandson of the great Earl of Clar- 



THE MOTHER COUNTRY. 153 

cornbury ^"^^^"^ ^^^^ oousin to Queen Anne, by whom he was 
in New appointed governor of New York, (1702.) His 
arrival was greeted with delight by a faction then 
suffering from the reaction consequent upon Leisler's cruel 
fate, ten years before. The party opposed to Leisler and 
his adherents, now getting the upper hand, voted an enthu- 
siastic grant to his lordship the governor, and doubled his 
salary besides. He was not contented ; but, on the vote of 
a large sum, in the ensuing year, for the fortification of the 
Narrows, he appropriated it to himself without leave or 
license. This dix)ve the assembly to insist upon having a 
treasurer of its own — a demand that was afterwards allowed 
by the queen, (1705.) Cornbury became more and more 
odious to those who had welcomed him with rapturous 
obedience. One assembly after another was dissolved for 
not meeting his multiplied requisitions. Two Presbyterian 
missionaries from England were prosecuted by him on no 
other charge than their creed, but were triumphantly ac- 
quitted by the jury, (1707.) His course was much the 
same in New Jersey, then under the New York governor, 
where, after violent assaults upon the political and religious 
privileges of the colony, he was met face to face in the 
assembly by charges of oppression and corruption, (1707.) 
Such proceedings as Cornbury's were too wanton to be tol- 
erated even in England. He was recalled, but without any 
other amends besides the recall, for the indignities from 
which New York and New Jersey had suffered during 
seven bitter years, (1709.) 

Burnet Some ycars pass, and the then governor of New 
and York, Colonel Cosby, complains to the board of 
in ]\iassa- trade of " the example of the Boston people," 
cimsetts. (1732.) With his views and w4th the views of the 
board there was ample motive for complaint. William 
Burnet, formerly governor of New York, now of Massa- 



154 PART II. 1638-1763. 

chusetts, had made it a point, from his first entrance upon 
his new government, to obtain a permanent salary, (1728.) 
The House of Representatives would not hear of such a 
thing, much preferring their usual mode of a yearly vote-. 
This the governor scorned, and hinted at the loss of the 
charter in case he was denied his will. A town meeting 
of the Bostonians sustained the hcxise with so much effect 
that Burnet held the next General Court at Salem. Bos- 
ton is the proper place for our sessions, declared the sturdy 
representatives. " Then meet in Cambridge the next time,** 
rejoined the governor, (1729.) Burnet dying, one of the 
agents sent to complain of him in England, Jonathan 
Belcher, was appointed his successor. But the colonist was 
soon involved in the same disputes as the Englishman, both, 
in the present case, ol)€ying instructions rather than follow- 
ing their own desires. After a two years^ controversy. 
Belcher obtained leave from England to accept a salary for 
the year, (1731.) Even this was cut off, on his opposing, 
as he was instructed to do, the further issue of paper money, 
already a sore subject in Massachusetts. Belcher wrote to 
the board of trade that a crisis was at hand. The house, 
on the other side, wrote to request the king to recall the 
governor's instructions, (1732.) On the king's refusal, the 
agents of the house made the same request to Parliament. 
" This is a high insult," replied that body, " upon his majes- 
ty's government, and tending to shake off the dependency 
of the colonies," (1733.) The House of Representatives 
restored the salaries which it had suspended ; but some 
fresh disputes arising, the removal of Belcher was asked 
for and obtained, (1740.) 

Clinton's A fcw ycars later, and Governor Clinton of New 
appeal. York, filling to obtain a grant for five year.-, ap- 
pealed to the secretary at the head of the board of trade 
" to make a good example for all America," (1748.) What 



THE MOTHER COUNTRY. 155 

Ilis idea w?is, appeared more clearly when he begged that 
Parliament would impose certain taxes to provide " the 
civil list," (1750.) It was the natural result of the exac- 
tions and the clamors of the previous half century. But 
even before the half century began, Clinton's appeal had 
been anticipated by a scheme of parliamentary taxation, 
brought forward at the time when the board of trade was 
entering upon its career, (1696.) 

Meantime Parliament had not left the adminis- 
meutary tration of the colonies entirely in other hands. It 
interfer- extended the post ofRce of Great Britain to Amer- 

ence. 

ica, (1710.) It regulated the system of naturaliza- 
tion, until then different in the different colonies, by requir- 
ing a probation of seven years, and an oath of allegiance, 
together with the profession of some form of Protestantism, 
(1740.) It interfered witli questions of currency and of 
banking,* in which, indeed, the colonies had got far beyond 
their depth, (1740-51.) 

Commer- ^^^ the while, Parliament maintained its aiUlior- 
ciai rule, {^j Qy^y i\^q colouial trade. Never, in truth, had it 
gone so far as when it passed what was called the " molasses 
act," laying duties on molasses, sugar, and rum imported 
from any but the British West India Islands, (1733.) "It 
is divesting the colonists," said the agent of New York in 
England, " of tlieir rights as the king's natural born sub- 
jects and Englishmen, in levying subsidies upon them 
acrainst their consent." Parliament was also extendino; its 
interference with manufactures in the colonies. It crowned 
its acts on this score by prohibiting the exportation of hats, 
(1732,) and the erection of mills for slitting or rolling iron, 
and of furnaces for making steel, (1750.) The commer- 

* It was the Avay \%ith most of the colonies, beginning with South 
Carolina, (1712,) to issue bills which were loaned to individuak as a 
bon-owed capital. 



156 PART II. ' 1638-1763. 

cial rule, commenced by the navigation acts of a century 
before, was thus approaching its completion. 
Military Auotlicr rulc was beginning to appear. The 
rule. wars in which the colonies were involved led to 
their subordination beneath the military and naval com- 
manders of the mother country. It was inevitable that 
the English officers should assume a superiority which 
would be felt, not merely in the field, but in the town — not 
merely amongst the soldiers, but amongst the citizens of 
the colonies. 
. Wild work was that which Commodore Knowles 

Inipross- 

laemt at made in undertaking to fill up his fleet by the im- 
pressment of Bostonians. The people seized his 
officers who happened to be on shore, and, retaining them 
as hostages, took such an attitude of fury and of strength, 
that Governor Shirley withdrew to the Castle in the harbor. 
Knowles threatened the bombardment of the town. The 
upper classes, through their representatives in the house, 
and in a town meeting of their own, abjured all connection 
with the so-called populace. But they who had risen for 
the sake of saving their brothers and their neighbors from 
outrage, though wholly deserted, were not wholly unsuc- 
cessful. The greater part of the men who had been 
pressed were surrendered by the commodore, and peace 
ensued. Yet there was more parade at the return of the 
governor than at the rescue of the artisans and the sailors 
of the town from their captivity, (1747.) 
A com- Clouds were gathering heavy with menace and 

niander- with ruin. An order went forth from the board 
of the of trade to the colonial governors, directing them 
colonies, j^ j-^ise a fund for the general expenses of the 
colonies, then driving, with the mother country, into the 
fiercest of the wars with France. At the same time, the 
mutiny act, providing for the discipline and the quarters 



THE MOTHER COUNTRY. 157 

of the English army, was extended to the colonies, (1754.) 
The next year (1755) brought over the Earl of Loudoun, 
governor of Virginia, and commander-in-chief of the whole 
thirteen. As the general fund to support his authority did 
not appear, Parliament addressed the colonial assemblies 
with the assertion that " the claim of right in an assembly 
to raise and apply public money by its own act alone is 
derogatory to the crown and to the rights of the people of 
Great Britain," (1757.) Both the property and the free- 
dom of the colonists w^ere thus involved in the establish- 
ment of a military rule. 

Judicial The signs were dark in all directions. Most of 
tenure, ^j^g colonial judgcs had long been appointed by the 
crown, or by its representatives the governors ; but once 
appointed, they were independent, as they held office dur- 
ing good behavior. But Chief Justice Pratt, of New 
York, received a commission to continue only " at the 
king's pleasure." In vain he remonstrated with the gov- 
ernor of the province ; in vain the governor supported the 
remonstrance in an appeal to the board of trade. " Your 
good behavior," answered the board, " is a pernicious prop- 
osition." So the secretary at the head of the board main- 
tained, in instructing the colonial governors to issue no 
commissions " but during pleasure." All this was stranger 
and more threatening than any previous act of the powers 
in England. New York showed its sense of the danger 
by refusing any salary to the chief justice. He, however, 
procured from the board of trade a grant, to be paid out 
of the royal quitrents of the province, (1761-62.) 
„, ., f With all the 2;ame now in view, the authorities 

Writs of o ' 

assist- still Stuck to their '" acts of trade." Francis Berr 

nard, lately governor of New Jersey, and at present 

of Massachusetts, had but just assured the latter colony of 

the " blessings from their subjection to Great Britain," 

14 



158 PART II. 1638-1763. 

when they were thrown into alarm by an application of 
the custom house otHcials to the Superior Court for writs 
of assistance, authorizing search after merciiandise import- 
ed in defiance of the acts of trade. Tiie liearing came on 
before Chief Justice Hutchinson, who was also the lieu- 
tenant governor. All that legal skill, as well as official 
influence, could do to obtain the writs, was done ; but \hr. 
counsel whom the Boston merchants had retained stood out 
to the last — Oxenbridge Thacher, " soft and cool ; " James 
Otis, " a flame of fire." " Every man," says one who was 
present, " of an immense crowded audience appeared to 
me to go away as I did, ready to take up arms against 
writs of assistance." Of course, the writs were granted, 
but they were little used, (1761.) The same spirit that 
had resisted them broke out against the schemes of taxa- 
tion with which the acts of trade were now connected. 
" Government," argued James Otis, " must not raise taxes 
on the property of the people without the consent of them 
or their deputies." It was not the plea of the politician 
alone. " I do not say," exclaimed the Boston clergyman 
Jonathan Mayhew, " our invaluable rights have been struck 
at ; but if they have, they are not wrested from us," 
(1762.) 

English It was amidst these controversies that the French 
dominion, ^yerc conqucrcd, and the English dominion rose to 
its height in America. In the north, it extended over the 
three provinces of St. John's, or Newfoundland, Nova 
Scotia, and Quebec, the new name for Canada. In the 
centre, it embraced the thirteen colonies, in which had lain 
the germ of its present growth. In the south, it compre- 
hended the two provinces of East and West Florida, 
together with a large portion of the West Indies. So 
vast an empire overtopped all other dominions in the 
western world. 



THE MOTHER COUNTRY. 159 

And now, to mark the effects of the victories upon 

Effects ' 1 • rr<i r J 

on the the victors. First, upon the colonists, ihey had 
coiouios. pj^^g^^j through agonizing times, when losses of 
friends and of resources weighed upon almost every house- 
hold, when alternations of grief and of revenge racked 
almost every breast. As a community, likewise, each 
colony had met its trials and its reverses. Notwithstand 
injr tlie reimbursements received from P^ngland, the colo- 
nies were in debt to the amount of more than ten million 
dollars, one quarter of which stood against Massachusetts 
alone, at the expiration of the last war with P'rance. 
Debts, however, were nothing compared to the diminution 
of the means of paying them, or of gathering new resources. 
The sacrifices of warfare are not to be measured by any 
single schedule ; roll after roll must be inscribed with 
losses, and even then the losses of the future, if they can 
be calculated, remain to be appended. On the other hand, 
the colonists were not without their compensations. They 
had rid themselves of an enemy whose neighborhood had 
been a constant source of peril, both from French and from 
Indian warfare, for a century and a half, (1613-1763.) 
They had proved their strength in repeated efforts and 
repeated successes. Better still, they had proved their 
union amongst themselves, especially in the final conflict 
which brought every colony of the thirteen shoulder to 
shoulder. Best of all, they had proved their patriotism, 
their love of their own land, hitherto overpowered by the 
affections that bound them to the other side of the sea, but 
now rising in solemn strength from out the battles and the 
agonies by which they had defended their country, and 
made it the first object of their devotion. 

Next, to trace the effects of victory upon the 

Upou the 1 1 T n 

mother mother country. Here we find the marks ot sor- 
country. ^^^^ ^^^ ^^ Calamity, but they are lost in the blaze 



160 PART II. 1638-1763. 

of glory which seemed to have been kindled. " England/* 
the king is said to have exclaimed, " never signed such a 
peace before." The king was George III., then in the 
third year of his reign. The aristocracy, still in power, 
thought with the king. They were dazzled by their suc- 
cess. It made them believe that their sway was irresisti- 
ble, that their colonies were to be ruled, burdened, and 
crushed as they pleased. Only a few, of keener vision 
and of truer principle, saw that the conquest of the French 
colonies, if resulting in the issues to which it seemed to be 
leading, would entail the loss of the English colonies. 

But for the moment, the English of England 

Tempo- ^ 

raiy and the English of America were one. The exul- 
"°^*^' tation of triumph over a common foe, the assurance 
of prosperity under a common king, just risen in his youth 
to the throne, blended with the -ties of a common law, a 
common literature, and a common ancestry. New hopes 
for both were appearing in the west. The Indian humbled, 
every race from Europe conquered, the English were the 
undisputed possessors of the fai'-stretching, the rich-prom- 
ising: land. 



PART III. 



INDEPENDENCE. 



1763-1797. 



14* (161) 



Old trou- 



CHAPTER I. 

Provocations. 

The old troubles between the mother country 
bies ex- and the colonies remained. They were now ex- 
tended. To enforce the commercial rule of Great 
Britain, her fleet upon the American coast was turned into 
a revenue squadron. To keep up the military rule, the 
colonies were organized in divisions, with British command- 
er-in-chief, British officers, and British troops , in short, a 
standing army. To maintain the whole system, commercial 
and military, the authorities of the mother country soon 
lent themselves to graver measures. 

The great majority of the British people regard- 
in the ^^ the American colonists as countrymen, who could 
mother j^q^ suffer without their sufferinn;, or prosper without 

country. , ^ "^ 

their prospering. But the majority of the people 
was powerless, or comparatively so. The dominion over 
the mother country, as well as over her colonies, was with 
the aristocracy, with men wlio, whether liberal or not, 
— according to the phrase, — whether whig or tory, were 
of almost one and the same mind in re<2;ardin<T the colonists 
as their subjects. So thought the king, at this time the 
head of the aristocracy rather than the sovereign of the 
nation. So thought the Parliament, at this time the repre- 
sentative assembly of the aristocracy rather than of the 
nation. So thousjht the successive ministries, the common 

representatives of the king and of the Parliament, to whom 

(163) 



164 PART III. 1763-1797. 

attached the credit or the discredit of any general course 
or of any particular measure that might be adopted in the 
councils of Great Britain. Thus it was but a portion of 
the nation — and this the smaller, although the more pow- 
erful portion — which was prepared to deal rigorously with 
the colonies. 

So the colonies perceived. If they had thanks 

\ lews ^ '' 

of the to offer for occasional acts of liberality, they gave 
them to the nation, knowing that in any liberal 
measures the nation must be united. But if there were 
complaints to make, if there were outcries of indignation 
and agony to utter, the object of them was not the nation. 
The colonies knew that the nation, as a whole, was on 
their side, and that it was the king, the Parliament, or the 
ministry who alone, as a general rule, deserved reproach. 
Hence the emphasis upon the word ministerial in relation 
to the system upheld in Britain, and opposed in America. 
„ ,. The colonies themselves were not a unit. Even 

Parties 

in the the old thirteen, with which we are concerned, pre- 
sented by no means an unbroken front. The very 
number of their inhabitants — near two milHons (1763) 
— implied differences and separations. A considerable 
part consisted of slaves and of servants scattered in vary- 
ing proportions amongst the various colonies. Of the free- 
men themselves, a very considerable proportion was more 
accustomed to subjection than to independence. Tliere 
were certainly many who were wholly unfit to defend their 
liberty, many more wlio were wholly unfit to raise it to a 
position of security. Happily there was a large and an 
increasing body of men, women, and chiklren, whose na- 
tures and whose principles were of a In'gher stamp. On 
these the colonies relied as much against the weaknesses 
that were within, as against the oppressions that were 
without. The same class was prominent in the pre 



PROVOCATIONS. 165 

ceding period ; here, more than ever, is it in the fore- 
groiDid. 

The two Thus, then, in the story of the provocations divid- 
sides. ii^g tiie mother country and the colonies, we liave 
not England, not Great Britain, pitted against America, 
but the ruling class in the mother country opposed to the 
better class in the colonies. The distinction is important. 
Nothing else could explain the amount of blundering on 
one side, or the amount of wisdom, comparatively speaking, 
on the other. Nor could any thing else so clearly indicate 
the difference between the principles at stake — the princi- 
ples of an old aristocracy on the one hand, and on the 
other those of a young commonalty, all fervent with vigor 
and with hope. 
,,. . , . The ministers representing the British side may 

Ministries r r> j 

of the be noted in this place. The Earl of Bute, prime 
^^"" ■ minister at the beginning of the period, (1763,) 
was succeeded by George Grenville in the same year ; 
then by the Marquis of Rockingham, (1765 ;) then by 
WiUiam Pitt, made Earl of Chatham, (1766;) then by the 
Duke of Grafton, (1768 ;) and then by Lord North, 
(1770.) The Rockingham and Chatham ministries alone 
were comparatively liberal, not even these being liberal 
in the true sense of the term. 
„ . ^ England was laboring under the increased debts 

Point ^ o 

of taxa- occasioned by the late war with France. It was 
not her part, argued the aristocracy, to bear them 
alone ; they had been incurred, in a great degree, on ac- 
count of the colonies, and the colonies should bear their 
share. The argument proceeded upon a strange forgetful- 
ness of the fact that the colonies were already bearing 
their share, and more than their share, of debts and diffi- 
culties in consequence of the war. Not the less deter- 
mined to increase the burdens of America, the authorities 



166 PART III. 1763-1797. 

in England cast about for the means of accomplishing their 
purpose. There was but one, and this taxation. Now, 
taxation of a certain sort was nothing new to the colonies. 
They had long borne with taxes for the so-called regulation 
of trade. But the ministry and their supporters, not con- 
tent with the old taxes, were for raising new ones — taxes 
for revenue as well as for regulation of trade. Substantial- 
ly, there was no difference ; taxes were taxes, whether laid 
upon imports or upon any thing else ; but the colonies 
were persuaded at the time, and for some time after, that 
there was a difference, and a vital one. 
Discus- When, therefore. Parliament voted, in the begin- 

sion. jjjj^g of ii^Q year, (1764,) that it had "a right to 
tax the colonies," implying in any way whatever, the colo- 
nies took alarm. The Massachusetts House of Represen- 
tatives ordered a committee of correspondence with the 
other colonies. James Otis, in a pamphlet on the Rights 
of the British Colonies, exclaimed, " that by this [the 
British] constitution, every man in the dominions is a free 
man ; that no part of his majesty's dominions can be taxed 
without their consent." " The book," said Lord Mansfield, 
chief justice of the King's Bench, " is full of wildness." 
But it did not satisfy many of the colonists, and wilder 
still, as the chief justice would have said, became their 
assertions of independence. It was not long before the 
right of Parliament to lay any taxes whatsoever was 
discussed and denied. 

Sugar ^^^t for the moment, the colonies were willing to 

*^*- bear with taxation under one name, provided it was 

not levied under another. The ministry, however, adopted 
the very style which the colonies disliked, and passed an 
act laying duties upon sugar and other articles of colonial 
import, with the expressed understanding that " it is just and 
necessary that a revenue be raised in America for defray- 



« 



PROVOCATIONS. 167 

Wig the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the 
same." In other words, both the commercial and the mih- 
tary sway over the colonies was to be support(^d and carried 
out by a course of taxation. Thus decided George Gren- 
ville and his party by the sugar act of 1764. It was a 
momentous decision. 

stamp The earnest remonstrances of the colonies, es- 

^^- pecially of New York and Rhode Island, produced 

no effect, except to precipitate measures in England. Ten 
months after the sugar act, a series of acts far more deci- 
sive was passed. A stamp act, proposed some time before, 
was enacted without any other serious opposition than that 
of English merchants in the American trade. By this act, 
all business papers and certificates, as well as newspapers, 
required a stamp, similar to that already used in Great 
Britain. At the same time, the jurisdiction of the Admi- 
ralty Court was extended, to the exclusion, therefore, of 
juries in many cases previously brought before them. 
Together with these new burdens upon the colonies, an 
old one was revived in the quartering act, by which 
quarters and various supplies were demanded from the 
colonies for the British troops amongst them. But neither 
the provisions for the troops nor those for the admiralty 
had any significance to be compared with the stamp duties, 
so unwonted and so unbearable, (1765.) 
Resist- They roused the colonies with a general start, 

ance. « This unconstitutional method of taxation," was 
the comment of George Washington, who, for the last six 
years, had been a burgess of Virginia. '^ That parliamen- 
tary procedure," was the subsequent language of Jonathan 
Mayhew, of Boston, " which threatened us and our pos- 
terity with perpetual bondage and slavery." Virginia was 
the first to speak out, as a colony, in resolutions proposed 
by Patrick Henry. " Those Virginians," responded Oxen- 



168 FART III. 1763-1797. 

bridge Thacher, of Massachusetts, the associate of Otis in 
opposing the writs of assistance, — " those Virginians are 
men." The response of Massachusetts, as a colony, was 
the vote of her representatives, on the proposal of James 
Otis, that the colonies should be invited to send committees 
of their representatives or burgesses to meet at New York. 
South Carolina, led by Christopher Gadsden, was the fii'st 
to appoint a committee to the proposed assembly. 

The first congress of the colonies met on the 
7th of October, 1765. South Carolina, Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and 
Maryland sent committees of their respective assemblies, 
according to the original plan ; the committees of New 
York, New Jersey, and Delaware being otherwise appoint- 
ed. New Hampshire and Georgia, without sending com- 
mittees, promised to adhere to the decisions of the congress. 
Virginia and North Carolina were absent and silent, but 
not from w^ant of sympathy. Timothy Ruggles, of Massa- 
chusetts, an officer in the late war with France, was chosen 
president ; amongst the members were James Otis and 
Christopher Gadsden, the two prime movers in the creation 
of the congress. Otis, like the other Massachusetts mem- 
bers, came instructed by the House of Representatives " to 
insist upon an exclusive right in the colony to all acts of 
taxation." This instruction sounds like the key note of 
the congress. 

Deciara- -^^^ othcr doiugs of the body, whether petition 
tion of iq king or addresses to Lords and Commons of 

rights -r, . . . 1 . .... 

and liber- Great Britam, sink into comparative insignificance 
ties. Y)j the side of a declaration of rights and liberties. 
This document, acknowledging the allegiance due by the 
colonies to the crown, dwells with peculiar emphasis upon 
their claim " to all the inherent rights and liberties of 
natural born subjects within the kingdom of Great Britain." 



PROVOCATIONS. 169 

The rights especially demanded by the colonies are those 
of taxation by their own assemblies, and of trial by tlieir 
own juries ; the two, as will be remembered, assailed by 
the stamp act. The injustice and impoUcy of the recent 
proceedings in the mother country are pointed out, with an 
earnest demand that all the obnoxious statutes should be at 
once repealed. The importance of the declaration must be 
evident. Preferring no claim to independence, it preferred 
claims to privileges which, in the existing relations between 
the colonies and the mother country, could not be secured 
without independence. The Declaration of Rights, dated 
the 19th of October, 1765, foretells the birth of the new 
nation as near at hand.* 

* With the exception of a few lines in the preamble, here follows in 
full the 

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES. 

The members of this congress esteem it our indispensable duty to make 
the follo^ving declaration of our humble opinion respecting the most 
essential rights and liberties of the colonists, and of the grievances under 
which they labor by reason of several late acts of Parliament. 

I. That his majesty's subjects in these colonies owe the same alle- 
giance to the crown of Great Britain that is owing from his subjects born 
within the realm, and all due subordination to that august body, the 
Parliament of Great Britain. 

II. That his majesty's liege subjects in these colonies are entitled to 
all the inherent rights and liberties of his natural bom subjects within 
the kingdom of Great Britain. 

III. That it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and 
the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes be imposed on them 
but with their 0A\'n consent, given personally or by their representatives. 

IV. That the people of these colonies are not, and, from their local 
circumstances, cannot be represented in the House of Commons in Great 
Britain. 

V. That the only representatives of the people of these colonies are 
persons chosen therein by themselves, and that no taxes ever have been 
or can be constitutionally imposed on them but by their respective legis- 
latures. 

VI. That all supplies to the crown being free gifts of the people, it is 

15 



170 PART III. 1763-1797. 

, The declaration was not made by every colony. 

But though signed by the representatives of only 
six colonies,* it was virtually the act of all but two, Vir- 
ginia and North Carolina ; and as such, it went forth to 
convince the mother country, nay, the colonies themselves, 



unreasonable and inconsistent with the principles and spirit of the British 
constitution for the people of Great Britain to grant to his majesty the 
property of the colonists. 

.VII. That trial by juiy is the inherent and invaluable right of every 
British subject in these colonies. 

VIII. That the late act of Parliament entitled " An act for granting 
and applying certain stamp duties and other duties in the British colonies 
and plantations in America," &c., by imposing taxes on the inhabitants 
of these colonies, and the said act, and several other acts, by extending 
the jurisdiction of the Courts of Admiralty beyond its ancient limits, have 
a manifest tendency to subvert the rights and liberties of the colonists. 

IX. That the duties imposed by several late acts of Parliament, from 
the peculiar circumstances of these colonies, vail be extremely burden- 
some and grievous, and, from the scarcity of specie, the payment of them 
absolutely impracticable. 

X. That as the profits of the trade of these colonies ultimately centre 
in Great Britain, to pay for the manufactures which they are obliged to 
take from thence, they eventually contribute very largely to all supplies 
granted there to the crown. 

XI. That the restrictions imposed by several late acts of Parliament 
on the trade of these colonies will render them unable to purchase the 
manufactures of Great Britain. 

XII. That the increase, prosperity, and happiness of these colonies 
depend on the full and free enjoyments of their rights and liberties, and an 
intercourse with Great Britain mutually affectionate and advantageous. 

XIII. That it is the right of the British subjects in these colonics to 
petition the king or either House of Parliament. 

Lastly. That it is the indispensable duty of these colonies, to the best 
of sovereigns, to the mother country, and to themselves, to endeavor by a 
loyal and dutiful address to his majesty, and humble applications to both 
Houses of Parliament, to procure the repeal of the act for granting and 
applying certain stamp duties, of all clauses of any other acts of Parlia- 
ment whereby the jurisdiction of the admiralty is extended as aforesaid, 
and of the other late acts for the restriction of American commerce. 

* Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, 
and Delaware. 



PROVOCATIONS 171 

that they were no longer separate settlements, but a smgle 
country. So bold was the whole course of the congress, so 
starthng the etFect, in English eyes, that the Lord Chancel- 
lor Northington exclaimed, " I declare as a lawyer, they 
have forfeited all their charters.'* It was all done in a 
three weeks' session. 

Thus far the colonies appear to have met their 
Riots. . . ^ ^ 

provocations with all the composure of men who 

knew the right to be upon their side. But it was not 
always so. When one of the New Jersey representatives, 
who had declined signing the acts of the congress, returned 
home, he was hanged and burned in effigy by his constituents. 
The mob spirit had shown itself, months before, in Boston 
and in Providence, w^here effigies were paraded and houses 
sacked amidst violence the most abhorrent to all the better 
class of the townspeople. When the stamp act went into 
operation, just after the close of the congress, a great riot 
broke out in New York, although there, as elsewhere, not a 
stamp officer remained to execute the provisions of the act. 
It is wiser to pass by such things with regret than to pause 
over their details as if they were the deeds of heroes. 
They sprang from strong feelings, we must allow, but not 
from strong principles ; and so far from aiding the colonies 
in obtaining justice, did more than any thing besides to in- 
crease the oppressiveness of the mother country. Bitterly, 
therefore, were they deplored by men like those who met 
in the congress or approved its acts of magnanimity. But 
such is ever the effect of o])})ression. It overturns the 
reason of the feeble ; it overthrows the influence of the 
strong. 

^. . The outbreak in New^ York led to one result of 

portation valuc. An agreement to suspend importations from 
consump- Grreat Britain was fortified by the resolution to en- 
tion. courage manufactures at home, even by such means 



172 PART III. 1763-1797. 

as eating no lamb or mutton, so that there might be wool 
enough for the country. All this being communicatetl by a 
committee of correspondence to the other colonies, there 
ensued a general, though not a universal, abstinence from 
British goods. Non-importation and non-consumption be- 
came the watchwords of the colonies ; and though broken 
again and again, they were again and again renewed during 
the ensuing years. The great change that resulted in the 
outward looks of society harmonized with the transforma- 
tion of feelings which was going on every where. 

Meanwhile the want of stamp officers, and the 
of stamp indisposition of the colonial authorities to enforce 
^ ■ the stamp act by themselves, had left it in a lifeless 

condition. Demands that it should be put out of existence 
altogether came, not from the colonies alone, but from a 
large number of merchants in England. Pitt and Burke, 
the greatest of English statesmen at the time, took up the 
opposition ; and as the act had but augmented the expendi- 
tures of the kingdom without increasing its revenues,* the 
ministry, then professing to be a liberal one, listened to the 
general clamor for repeal. Amidst the throngs of trades- 
men and merchants, politicians and statesmen, discussing 
the question, we see the colonial agents all alive to the 
interests with which they were charged. Foremost stood 
Benjamin Franklin, for several years t the agent of Penn- 
sylvania, and now called before the House of Commons, 
where he assured his questioners that the colonies would 
never submit to the stamp act, nor to any similar statute, 
however much they might yield upon the point of duties 
to regulate commerce. The repeal was carried, accom- 

* It had cost the treasury £12,000, of Avhich but little more than a 
twelfth part was returned from duties le\-ied in Newfoundland, Nova 
Scotia, Quebec, Florida, and the West Indies. 

t Since 1757, but with an interval. 



PROVOCATIONS. 173 

panied, however, by a declaratory act, "for the belter 
securing the dependency of his majesty's dominions in 
America upon the crown and Parhament of Great Britain 
in all cases whatsoever." This was the answer of England 
to the congress of America ; the stamp act was laid aside ; 
but the power of taxation was more tightly grasped than 
ever. 

American It was now the Spring of 1766. And never had 
rejoicings, ^jj^^j- g^asou bccn SO fuU of bloom as in the srladness 
which it novv^ brought to the colonies. The fact that their 
rejoicings over the repeal of the stamp act were unmingled 
with any apparent misgivings as to the purpose of the de- 
claratory act, shows the warmth of their attachment to the 
mother country. Statues to Pitt and to the king, with in- 
demnities to those who had suffered from the riots of the pre- 
ceding year, were voted amidst a turbulence of congratula- 
tion such as no event had ever occasioned in America. 

Forebodinjfs returned with the followinir: vear. 

GW tlCtS. 

The Parliament of 1767 created a board of revenue 
commissioners for America ; passed a tea act, by which 
duties were imposed upon tea and other imports into the 
colonies, for the purpose not only of providing for troops as 
before, but of securing fixed salaries for the royal governors 
and the royal judges; then pronounced the Kew York 
assembly incapable of legislation until the quartering act 
of 1765 was obeyed by that body, hitherto resisting its exe- 
cution. Here were three measures more comprehensive 
and more oppressive than any parliamentary legislation had 
as yet been. 

They were met as might have been expected. 

aijce " Let us complain to our parent," wrote John Dick- 

" ■ inson, a native of Maryland, and a representative of 

Pennsylvania, in his Letters from a Farmer, " but let our 

complaints speak at the same time the language of affliction 

15* 



174 PART III. 1763-1797. 

and veneration," (1767.) The beginning of the next year 
(1768) brought out the sterner voice of Massachusetts 
through her representatives, inveighing against all the enact- 
ments of Parliament, and calling upon the colonies to join 
in one firm front of resistance. This measure the next 
house was called upon to rescind, and by no less an author- 
ity than that of the ministry ; but in vain. The same spirit 
showed itself in all classes. The students of Harvard Col- 
lege declared the proceedings of their tutors unconstitu- 
tional, and called a tree by the name of Liberty. The 
Boston Cadets — a volunteer guard of the governor — re- 
fused to appear if the revenue commissioners, who had their 
head quarters at Boston, were invited to join a procession. 
The commissioners were soon flying from a riot occasioned 
by the seizure of John Hancock's sloop for a fraudulent 
entry at the custom house. Such was the prevailing con- 
fusion, that British troops were ordered to the town, (1768.) 
This was too much for Boston. A town meeting 
chusetts called upon the governor to convene the General 
conven- Couj-t. On his rcfusal, the meeting advised the 

tion. ' ° 

people to get their arms ready, on account, it was 
said, " of an approaching war with France ; " then summoned 
a convention from all Massachusetts. This gathered, and 
again requested the governor to summon the legislature. 
He again refused, and hinted at treason in the convention, 
with reason, indeed, considering the entire novelty of such 
a body to him and to the colony. The convention, not very 
full of lire, deprecated the displeasure of the governor, and 
addressed a petition to the king. Just as the convention 
was separating, the troops arrived, but without finding the 
quarters that were demanded for them from Boston, sturdier 
as a town than Massachusetts as a colony. " O my coun- 
trymen ! " exclaimed Josiali Quincy, Jr., one of the truest- 
hearted young men of Boston ; " what will our children say 



PROVOCATIONS. 175 

when they read the history of these times, should they find 
we tamely gave away, without one noble struggle, the most 
invaluable of earthly blessings?" This was no appeal to 
violence. "To banish folly and luxury," continued the 
Christian patriot, ''correct vice and immorality, and stand 
immovable in the freedom in which we are free indeed, is 
eminently the duty of each individual at this day," (1768.) 

The new year (1769) began with a new provoca- 
cerning tiou, in the shape of an act directing that all cases 
trials in ^f treason, whether occurrinoj in the colonies or not, 

England. ' . '^ m • 

should be tried in the mother country. Phis was 
worse than any taxation, worse than any extension of ad- 
miralty courts, any demand for quarters, any creation of 
revenue commissioners, any suspension of assemblies ; it 
struck a blow at the safety of the person as well as the free- 
dom of the subject. The planter at Mount Vernon, hitherto 
calm, exclaims with indignation that "our lordly masters in 
Great Britain Avill be satisfied with nothing less than the 
deprivation of American freedom." " That no man," he 
writes, " should scruple or hesitate a moment to use arms in 
defence of so valuable a blessing, is clearly my opinion. 
Yet arms, I would beg leaA-e to add, should be the last re- 
source." The Virginia assembly, of which Washington 
was still a member, passed resolutions of kindred spirit. 
Massachusetts was more than ready to follow. The Suffolk 
grand jury indicted the governor of Massachusetts, the 
commander-in-chief of the colonies in general, with the rev- 
enue commissioners and officers of the customs, for libelling 
the province to the ministry. Joseph Hawley, representa- 
tive from Northampton, declared in the house that he knew 
not " how Parliament could have acquired a right of legis- 
lation over the colonies." Thus for every fresh provoca- 
tion was there a fresh resistance, denying more and more 
of the power that was more and more oppressive. 



17G PART III. 1763-1797. 

Coioaiai The New York assembly now made its submis- 
dmsions. gj^^^ ^^ j^j^^ quartering act. In doing so it gave 
great offence to many of the people, one of whom was 
thrown into prison for his violent denunciation of the assem- 
bly. Neither he nor the assembly showed much wisdom in 
thus contending at a time when union was so much required. 
But there were parties amongst the colonists, just as there 
had been, indeed, from the beginning, but now more distinctly 
marked and more widely separated. No less than five 
divisions existed, the central and the most substantial being 
that of the class already mentioned as chief in the colonies. 
This was flanked, on one side, by two orders more or less 
inclined to submit to the mother country, and on the other 
side by two orders more or less inclined to defy the mother 
country. To begin with the royalists, their name exjjlain- 
ing itself; then came the neutrals, as they may be styled, 
neither precisely royalist nor precisely colonist ; next the 
colonists proper, in their close and resolute ranks — the men 
on wliom the issue depended more than on any others ; and 
after them the more excited parties, first of the Sons of Lib- 
erty, as they called themselves,* and second of the rioters. 
Thus, with royalists and neutrals on one wing, and with 
Sons of Liberty and rioters on the other, the main body of 
the colonists had but a weary and an anxious march. 
Eoston The difficulties of the case were nowhere more 

massacre, apparent than in Boston. A constant tendency to 
riot on the part of a portion of the townspeople required as 
much energy on the part of tlie better class as any provoca- 
tions from abroad against which they were contending. 
While the Aviser Bostonians were endeavoring to procure 

* From the words of Barre's famous speech of 1765. Many of the 
original Sons of Liberty were of the class described as the better one of 
the time ; but, at the present period, the order was made up of tke more 
turbulent spirits, yet not the most turbulent of all. 



1 



PROVOCATIONS. 177 

the withdrawjil of the troops quartered amongst them, a 
party of men and boys involved themselves in a quarrel 
willi the soldiers, the end of which was blood. This Boston 
Massacre, as it was called, did but add to the burden of the 
moderate and the effective citizens. The soldiers who had 
fired upon the people required to be defended upon a charge 
of murder ; the authorities in England required to be con- 
vinced that the violence of the populace was as much de- 
plored as the musketry of the soldiery. It marks the 
increasing passions of the times, that the two advocates 
retained by the English officer in command on the night of 
the affray, though they were no less tried patriots than 
John Adams and Josiah Quincy, Jr., should have fallen 
under censure for undertaking the defence. Happily for 
the fame of Boston, they secured the safety of the accused, 
only two out of nine being brought in guilty, and those of 
manslaughter alone, for which they were branded in the 
hand and then discharged, (1770.) 

Other Boston was not alone in these disturbances. North 

disturb- Carolina saw a large portion of her interior settlers 
banded together as Regulators * against the colonial 
government; nor were they brought to reason without a 
battle, in which they were defeated by a volunteer force 
from the orderly jwrtion of the colony, (1771.) In the 
north, again, the burning of storehouses at Portsmouth, and 
the destruction of the revenue schooner Gaspe in Narra- 
ganset Bay, kept up the flames of rashness and of outrage, 
(1772.) The Gaspe, or its officers, however, had done all 
that was possible to pi-ovoke its doom. 

The mother country had been pursuing a comparatively 
gentle course. The repeal of the duty upon many arti- 



* A name first applied in South Carolina to a party undertaking to 
execute the laws for themselves ; in modern phrase, Lynch-law meii- 



178 PART III. 17G3-1797. 

cles imported into the colonies showed a disposition 
J, J .^pj pjjjj. to concihate, (1770.) Two years passed before any 
cci'ning ^ct appeared in relation to the colonies ; nor could 

that then enacted be called a provocation. In con- 
sequence of the occurrence at Portsmouth, a bill passed 
Parliament to secure the trial in England of any incendia- 
ries of the royal stores or ships in America, (1772.) It did 
not please the colonists, not even the great party of modera- 
tion, to think that they had brought this sentence upon 
themselves. The truth was, that the less moderate the 
course of things, the fewer moderate men there were to 
bring things back to moderation. What was done only by 
the violent Avas upheld in many instances by the prudent ; a 
common sympathy was fast fusing all parties. So Boston 
now held its town meeting, and put forth its memorial not 
only against the acts of which it had to complain, but 
against those which it seemed to have to apprehend. 

The next year showed how fast the colonies w^ere 

Tea de- *' 

stroyed in driving ou. It began with resolutions from Vir- 
ginia, where a committee was appointed to corre- 
spond with the other colonies. To the closer union thus pro- 
posed, Rhode Island was the first to adhere, but Tvathout 
immediate results. Yet, as the year advanced, the colo- 
nists found themselves the better prepared to combine in 
resistance to the introduction of large quantities of tea, still 
subject to duty. It was the plan partly of the East India 
Company and partly of the ministiy ; the former hoping to 
dispose of their swollen stock, the lattei* to obtain some of 
the taxes that appeared to have been levied in vain upon 
the colonies. Philadelphia was the first to take the field by 
town meeting against tea and taxation. Boston soon fol- 
lowed ; and when the proceedings of town meetings, both 
ordinaiy and extraordinary, came to nouglit, as the governor 
stood fast for the East India Company and the ministry. 



n 



PIIOVCCATIONS. 179 

the three vessels that had come in with tea were boarded, 
and their cargoes thrown into the dock. It was a sad event 
for many even of the more resolute citizens ; but the ma- 
jority, under the lead erf Samuel Adams, was now composed 
of the rash as well as the resolute ; a party from the country 
having been most active in the destruction of the tea, (De- 
cember, 1773.) A few weeks later, a smaller quantity of 
tea, imported to private order, was also destroyed at Boston, 
(February, 1774.) 

And else- ^he Same thing happened at New York and An- 
where. napolis. But the larger portion of the tea received 
at New York, and all received at Philadelphia, was swiftly 
returned to England. This returning the tea, or the stor- 
ing it where it would soon lose its virtue, as in Charleston, 
was a far wiser course than destroying it. The process of 
destiniction was also the less bold. It was effected by men 
disguised, or else so maddened as to scorn disguise. 
Slave It has already appeared how small a part of the 

tratte. provocations to the colonies consisted in mere meas- 
ures of taxation. A signal instance of the comprehensive 
inflictions from the mother country came up in the midst of 
the transactions lately occurred. The repugnance of the 
colonies to the slave trade, reviving in these times of strug- 
gle, brought out renewed expressions of opposition and 
abhorrence. Virginia attempted by her assembly to lay 
restrictions on the traffic ; but the royal governor was at 
once directed by the authorities at home to consent to no 
laws affecting the interests of the slave dealers, (1770.) 
The efforts of other colonies met with similar obstacles. 
Bills of assemblies, petitions to the king, called forth by 
the startling development of the trade,* were alike ineffect- 



* In less than nine months, 64:31 slaves were imported into the single 
colony of South Carolina, from Africa and the West Indies. 



180 PART III. 1763-1797. 

ual. "It is the opinion of this meeting," — thus ran the re- 
solves of the county of Fairfax, George Washington chair- 
man, — "that during our present difficuUies and distress, no 
slaves ought to be imported into any of the British colonies 
on this continent ; and we take this opportunity of declaring 
our most earnest wishes to see an entire stop forever put to 
such a wicked, cruel, and unnatural trade," (1774.) 

Provocations were gathering heavily and rapidly, 
ment of Massachusetts and Boston, foremost in the tea trou- 
Massa- \y\QQ e^^iA goon after, in the disturbances occasioned 

chusetts 

and Bos- by royal salaries to the governors and judges of the 
colonies, were singled out for peculiar chastisement. 
The Boston port bill closed the harbor of that town to all 
importation and exportation. Then General Gage, com- 
mander-in-chief of the British forces in the colonies, was 
appointed governor of Massachusetts. Not content with 
creating this state of siege, the ministry brought in a bill 
for the better regulating the government of Massachusetts 
Bay, by which the colony was virtually deprived of its 
charter. The councillors and superior judges were all to be 
appointed by the crown ; the inferior judges and other offi- 
cers being left to the nomination of the governor, who w'as 
invested with a sort of absolute authority. No town meet- 
ings were to be held, except for elections, unless the gov- 
ernor saw fit to make any further exceptions. No juries 
were to be summoned, except by the sheriffs, that is, by the 
officers of the governor. To crown the whole, a third bill 
provided that persons charged with murder in sustaining 
the government, should be sent to another colony or to Eng- 
land for trial — a shrewd precaution, considering the cer- 
tainty of collision between the people and the government 
under the system about to be enforced. Such were the 
measures by which Massachusetts was to be crushed and 
her sister colonies overawed. The crisis had come with 
the spring and summer of 1774. 



PROVOCATIONS. 181 

Quebec Another proceeding of the same period was in- 
^^^- tended to separate the thirteen colonies from their 

neighbors on the continent. The French settlers in the 
west had shown some signs of sympathy with the English 
colonies, not, indeed, by any direct cooperation, or even 
intercourse, but by the same irrepressible instincts after 
liberty. When their petition for a form of government in 
which they could have some share was met by a system in 
which none but the royal officials had any part, the French 
in the Illinois country protested against it with all the fer- 
vor of their nature, (1773.) To keep such spirits down, 
especially to keep them from combining with the kindred 
spirits of the English colonies, seems to have been the main 
object of the Quebec act, by which that province, extended 
from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Mississippi, was 
placed under a government mostly of royal officials. At 
the same time, the French were concihated by the restora- 
tion of their law and of their church, (1774.) 

Thus cut off from their northern and western 
tionsand ^^ighbors, the inhabitants of the thirteen colonies 
Provin- gathered together against the mother-land. A cir- 
gress iu cular from Boston to the towns of Massachusetts 
Massa- called upon them to make common resistance to the 

cluisetts. 

recent acts. Several of the towns, or rather coun- 
ties, met by delegates in convention at Boston to resolve 
upon measures of defence, amongst which "the military 
art" and "a Provincial Congress" were prominent. A con- 
vention of Middlesex county at Concord resolved that " to 
obey them," that is, the acts of Parliament, " would be to 
annihilate the last vestiges of liberty in this province," 
(August.) Ten days after, (September,) a convention of 
Suffolk county at INIilton recommended that the detested 
acts " should be rejected as the attempts of a wicked admin- 
istration to enslave America." The next month, (October,) 
16 



182 PART III. 1763-1797 

tlie House of Representatives voted itself a Provincial Con- 
gress. This was decisive. But that it was done, must be 
ascribed not merely to the inherent independence of Massa- 
chusetts, but to the pervading sympathy of the sister 
colonies. 

National " H^s uot tliis," wrotc Washington, nearly three 
bpint. months before, in relation to the acts of Parliament 
and the proceedings of Governor General Gage, — "has not 
this exhibited an unexampled testimony of the most despotic 
system of tyranny that was ever practised in a free govei-n- 
ment? . . . Shall we supinely sit, and see one prov- 
ince after another fall a sacrifice to despotism ? . . . 
My nature recoils at the thought of submitting to measures 
which I think subversive of every thing that I ought to hold 
dear and valuable." Such was the tone of every true voice, 
the feeling of every true heart. A national spirit was 
aroused. 

Conf nen ^^orc than a year previously, Benjamin Franklin 
taicou- — now agent not only for Pennsylvania, but for 
e^'^'^s- Massachusetts, New Jers-ey, and Georgia — wrote 
officially to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 
recommending a General Congress, (1773.) But it was not 
until ten months afterwards that the project was taken up, 
and then not in Massachusetts, but in Rhode Island. Vir- 
ginia followed close, recommending that the Congress should 
be annual, and voting that " an attack upon one colony was 
an attack upon all British America," (May, 1774.) Rhode 
Island was the first to appoint delegates ; Massachusetts 
doing the same almost immediately, and the other colonics, 
Georgia excepted, imitating these examples. The method 
of appointment varied from choice by the assembly, or by a 
convention of the whole colony, to choice by committees, 
county and town, or by a single committee. It was a noble 
body that met at Philadelphia on the 5th of September, 



PROVOCATIONS. 183 

1774. Samuel Adams and John Adams were there from 
Massachusetts ; John Jay from New York ; John Dickin- 
son from Pennsylvania ; George Washington, Patrick 
Henry, and Richard Henry Lee, from Virginia; Christo- 
pher Gadsden and John Rutledge from South Carolina. 
" If you speak of eloquence," said Patrick Henry, on being 
asked about the greatest man in Congress, " Mr. Rutledge 
is by far the greatest orator ; but if you speak of solid in- 
formation and sound judgment. Colonel Washington is 
unquestionably the greatest man on that floor." It needed 
all that the leaders, all that the members as a body, could 
command, to meet the exigencies of the time. The Congress 
that met to reject the stamp act, nine years before, had but 
child's play to go through, compared with the work of the 
present Congress — the Continental Congress, as it was 
called. 

Taxation had been the substance of three acts of 

Its work. 

Parliament, or, at the most, of four.* There were 
twice or thrice that number t upon other points to be op- 
posed. Against all these prov6cations the Continental Con- 
gress put forth their declaration of colonial rights. In this, 
much the same ground as to the allegiance and the general 
rights of the colonies was taken as had been held by the 
earlier Congress. It is therefore a document of secondary 
importance in the progress of our history. 
American -^^^ ^^ ^^^® American Association. This was a 
Associa- body of articles, by which a stop was to be put, after 

certain dates, to all importation from or exportation 

* The sugar, the stamp, and the tea acts, with the act creating rev- 
enue commissioners. 

t The quartering acts, the act suspending the New York assembly, 
the acts concerning trials for treason and incendiarism, the three acts 
against Massachusetts, the Quebec act, besides those portions of the stamp 
and tea acts relating to Admiralty Courts and royal salaries. 



184 PART III. 1763-1797. 

to Great Britain and its dependencies, so long as the op- 
pressive acts of Parliament were not repealed. " We will 
neither import nor purchase any slaves imported after the 
first day of December next," was one of the articles ; " after 
which time we will neither be concerned in it ourselves, nor 
will we hire our vessels, nor sell our commodities or manu- 
factures, to those who are concerned in it." Thus humane 
as well as bold, considerate for their inferiors as well as res- 
olute towards their superiors, or those claiming to be such, 
the members of the Continental Congress signed the Amer- 
ican Association. The date was October 20, 1774. It was 
the birthday of the nation. 

Tofjrether with the Association and the declara- 

Petition ^ 

and ad- tion, there came from Congress a jDetition to the king 
and addresses to the people of Great Britain, Brit- 
ish America, and Canada, besides letters to Newfoundland, 
Nova vScotia, and the two Floridas. These various docu- 
ments being adopted, and the debates on all the stirring 
questions of the time being concluded, not altogether with 
unanimity, Congress separated, (October 26,) having pro- 
vided that another Congress should be convened, if neces- 
sary, in the ensuing spring. 

Peace or " More blood," wrote Washington, during the ses- 
^^- sion of Congress, " will be spilled on this occasion, 
if the ministry are determined to push matters to extremity, 
than history has ever yet furnished instances of in the annals 
of North America." "After all," wrote Joseph Hawley from 
Massachusetts to John Adams in Congress, — " after all, we 
must fight." Adams read the letter to his colleague from 
Virginia, the fervid Patrick Henry, wlio burst out with the 
exclamation, " I am of that man's mind ! " It was not the 
opinion of every one. Richard Henry Lee parted from 
Adams with the assurance that " all the offensive acts will 
be repealed. . . . Britain will give up her foolish project." 



PROVOCATIONS. 185 

Prepara- Come peace or come war, the Americans, as they 
tion. aj.g hereafter to be called, were prepared. Not, it 
is true, with armies or fortresses, not with the material 
resources which they seemed to require, but with the spirit 
that was of far greater importance, the source of all outward 
strength and success. This spirit was not without its sup- 
ports, intellectual or physical. The struggles with the 
mother country had called out orators and statesmen, whose 
minds were daily making some fresh contribution to the 
thought and the power of humanity. Physically, the 
Americans were increasing their stores and extending their 
domains. The road to the great west was opened with the 
first settlement made in the present Tennessee, (1768.) If 
old weaknesses lingered, if the disputes between colony and 
colony continued, now on a question of boundary, now on 
one of doctrine, they were lost in the union that had been 
achieved, in the nation that had been bom. 
16* 



CHAPTER II. 
War. 

Armin "^^^ ^^^^ ^^3^ ^^^^ *^® Continental Congress 

of Massa- separated, — October 26, 1774, — the Provincial 
Congress of Massachusetts took a step decisive of 
war. This was the organization of the mihtia, consisting 
of all the able-bodied men of the colony, one fourth of 
them being constituted minute men, bound to take up arms 
at a minute's warning. Soon afterwards, provision was 
made for supplying the equipments and munitions of an 
army. The whole was placed under the direction of a 
committee of safety, with John Hancock for a chairman. 

The arming. of the colony had not been unpro- 
provokea voked. Two months before. General Gage, the 
or unan- commauder-in-chief and the governor, had begun 

ticipated. p .^ & ' & 

to fortify the land approach to Boston. He had 
also seized upon some stores of powder belonging to the 
province at Charlestown. Such was the temper excited 
against him, that Christopher Gadsden, the representative 
of South Carolina in the Continental Congress, proposed an 
immediate attack upon the British head quarters in Boston. 
Neither was the arming of Massachusetts altogether unan- 
ticipated. No colony, indeed, had gone so far ; but many 
a town, many a band of individuals, was prepared for con- 
flict. A rumor that Boston was bombarded by the British 
brought out numbers of the Connecticut militia to the 

rescue of their countrymen. Years before, when the stamp 

(186) 



WAR. 187 

act was rousing the land to resistance, some ardent New 
Yorkers had voted " to march with all despatch . . . 
to the relief of those who should or midit be in danj^er 
from the stamp act or its abettors," (1765.) The juncture 
thus prepared for arrived when Massachusetts armed her- 
self. From that day, war was inevitable. The British 
authorities would never sit by while such things were going 
on, nor could they attempt any measures of repression 
without arousing the colonists to use the weapons which 
they had assumed. 
. . The example of Massachusetts was soon followed. 

Arming '■ 

of other Far and near, the colonies, by act of assembly, or 
of convention, or of individual resolution, took up 
the posture of defence. All the while, the national spirit 
was sustained by the American Association, and by the 
committees appointed to enforce it. Though not universally 
prevalent, the Association had extended itself more widely 
and more deeply than any previous bond of union amongst 
the colonies. Earnest to maintain their ties and their 
rights, the Americans drew out their lines. It was no 
great show in a military point of view. In point of 
courage, of sacrifice, it was sublime. 

Course of '^^^ ^'^^*' ^^'^^ closing in England with a new 
Pariia- Parliament, in which the majorities for the ministry 
were irresistible. Amongst the members was a 
native of New York, Henry Cruger, who, having settled 
as a merchant at Bristol, was elected mayor, and returned 
to Parliament. In the prime of manhood, flushed with 
generous emotion for the country of his birth, although 
opposed to its revolutionary courses, he rose to make his 
maiden speech against the severities with which the minis- 
try was threatening America. " Can it be believed," he 
cries, " that Americans will be dragooned into a conviction 
of this right of parliamentary taxation ? " The plea was 



188 PART III. 1763-1797. 

• 

taken up by men of greater influence. As the new year 
(1775) opened, Chatham and Burke devoted themselves to 
obtaining justice for America. In vain ; the petition of the 
Continental Congress to the king was refused a hearing ; 
rebellion was declared to exist in Massachusetts, and to be 
abetted by other colonies. The " New England restraining 
act " cut off the New England colonies from the fishery and 
from all trade, save to Great Britain, Ireland, and the Brit- 
ish West Indies. The prohibition was soon extended to 
the other colonies ; New York, North Carolina, and Georgia 
being spared on account of their expected submission. At 
the same time, Lord North, the prime minister, brought out 
what he called a conciliatory proposition, to the effect that 
the colonies should not be taxed by Parliament, if they 
would tax themselves, and therewith raise the sums which 
Parliament should deem necessary. " They complain," 
was the decisive reply of Edmund Burke, " that they are 
taxed without their consent ; you answer that you will fix 
the sum at which they shall be taxed. That is, you give 
them the very grievance for the remedy." The proposition, 
thus clearly seen through by an Englishman, was not likely 
to blind Americans. Out of Parliament, there were few to 
take any active part in relation to America. We should 
not, however, pass over the suggestion of Dr. Tucker, Dean 
of Gloucester, that Parliament should declare the colonies 
separated from the mother country until they humbled 
themselves to ask for forgiveness and for restoration. Had 
the dean's idea been adopted, how much wrong, how much 
blood, might have been saved ! 

ri,.gt But the Americans and the British were now to 

collision, meet in arms. A party of one hundred and fifty 
troops, sent from Boston to seize some cannon at vSalem, 
not finding it there, marched on towards Danvers. On their 
way, they came to a bridge, occupied at first by a few coun- 



WAR. 189 

try people, but presently by a company of militia under 
Colonel Pickering. As the draw was up, the British at- 
tempted to cross the stream in boats, and in doing so, used 
their bayonets freely enough to wound the men who kept 
the boats from them. A serious conflict would have en- 
sued but for the mediation of Mr. Barnard, a clergyman 
of Salem, who prevailed on the British officer, Lieutenant 
Colonel Leslie, to return in case the troops were allowed 
to cross the bridge. This was agreed to on the American 
side ; the troops crossed, advanced a few rods, then faced 
about, and retired without the cannon of which they had 
come in search. The date was February 26, 1775. 
Its sig- The collision is memorable as the first of the 
nificance. ^yr^j.. It is also to be remarked as strikingly sig- 
nificant of the collisions that followed. The same paucity 
of numbers, the same restriction of movements, the same 
ineffectiveness of results, characterize the whole strife be- 
tween Great Britain and America. We must be prepared 
for operations on a small scale, and with a small effect, each 
taken alone. Taken together, however, the operations of 
the war bear a nearer proportion to the greatness of the 
stakes at issue. 

Lexin ^^^^ ncxt cncountcr was more serious. It took 

ton and place in the early morning of April 19. A force 
of eight hundred troops, marching from Boston to 
Concord, for the purpose of destroying the military stores 
collected in that place, met not quite a hundred minute 
men at Lexington. The British fired ; the minute men 
returned the fire, but, of course, retreated, leaving a few 
of their number killed and wounded. The men of Concord 
retired before the troops w^ithout attempting resistance ; but 
from the surrounding towns there came other minute men 
so numerous and so spirited as to engage with the British, 
and compel them to retreat. The retreat became a flight ; 



190 PART III. 1763-1797. 

nor would the fugitives have escaped but for the reenforce- 
ments vdiich met them at Lexington. The number of the 
Americans being also on the increase, the retreat, resumed 
at Lexington, proved very difficult. Had it been protract- 
ed, the arrival of fresh parties of minute men would have 
cut it off altogether. As it was, the British, out of seven- 
teen hundred troops, lost nearly three hundred in killed, 
wounded, and prisoners. The Americans, amounting in all 
to several hundred, lost less than one hundred. 

" An inhuman soldiery," wrote Joseph Warren, 
Meckien- president of the Provincial Congress, to the com- 
burg dec- mittces of Safety throughout Massachusetts, " en- 
raged at being repulsed from the field of slaughter, 
will, without the least doubt, take the first opportunity in 
their power to ravage this devoted country with fire and 
sword. We conjure you, therefore, that you give all assist- 
ance possible in forming an army." Massachusetts voted 
that at least thirty thousand men ought to be raised by 
New England, herself furnishing nearly half the number. 
Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire soon re- 
sponded, but not quite so liberally as the sister colony had 
desired. Out of New England, the agitation was the same. 
" The once happy and peaceful plains of America," wrote 
AYashington from Philadelphia, " are either to be drenched 
with blood or inhabited by slaves. Sad alternative ! But 
can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice ? " The news, 
travelling slowly, reached the town of Charlotte, Mecklen- 
burg county. North Carolina, where a county convention 
was in session. It lent resolution to the delegates, who 
adopted some resolves, which have been called a declara- 
tion of independence, but which, in their more authentic 
form, simply declare the colonial constitution, as it had 
been, to be suspended, and the legislative and execu- 
tive power to be vested for the time in the Provincial 
and Continental Congresses, (May.) This declaration of 



WAR. 191 

Mecklenburg county was communicated to the Provincial 
Congress of the colony, without, however, obtaining the 
sympathy of that assembly. It was also forwarded to the 
North Carolina representatives in the Continental Congress ; 
but so little did it move them, that they did not even lay it 
before their colleagues. 

^. . The troops of New Enjiland were o-athering 

Massa- about Bostou. The people of Massachusetts sent 
■ an address to the people of Great Britain. " Ap- 
pealing to Heaven," they declared, " for the justice of our 
cause, we determine to die or to be free." Repelling a 
Connecticut offer of mediation between herself and her 
governor, General Gage, Massachusetts voted him " an 
unnatural and inveterate enemy " — a compliment which he 
afterwards returned by pronouncing the Massachusetts 
people " rebels and traitors." The breach yawned wide, 
and wider still, as the passions and the outrages of war 
poured in. 

So far the Americans had acted on the defensive, 
d^aand*^ But now a band of volunteers from Connecticut 
Crown r^j^j ^i^g Green Mountains, led by Ethan Allen and 
Seth Warner, with whom went Benedict Arnold, 
under a Massachusetts commission, surprised the small gar- 
risons at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, (May 10-12.) 
Descending thence against various places on Lake Cham- 
plain, the adventurous band secured a large booty, and then 
separated, leaving a considerable portion of their number 
in possession of the Point and Ticonderoga. 

The spirit aroused in action appeared in delibera- 
ings in tion likewise. When the new Congress assembled 
Congress. ^^ Philadelphia in the spring, (May 10,) it began 
upon measures more determined by far than those of the 
former body. The members were mostly the same ; but 
the circumstances in which they met were as different as 



192 PART III. 1763-1797. 

peace and war. Massachusetts opened the way to new res- 
olutions, by recommending the creation of an American 
army, and by asking instruction as to the form of govern- 
ment under which she should place herself. Congress an^ 
swered the request by advising the election of a council and 
an assembly, who should administer the colony by them- 
selves, until a governor should appear to take his part ac- 
cording to the charter of 1691. Soon afterwards, the Pro- 
vincial Congress of Massachusetts gave way to a General 
Court or assembly. The recommendation of an army was 
followed by Congress in adopting the troops before Boston 
as the American continental army. To this were also 
summoned a few companies of riflemen from the southern 
colonies. 

Washing- The creation of an army required the creation 
ton ap- Qf a commander. No act of Congress could be 

pointed . , /• i .1 

command- morc important, none proved more successtiU, tlian 
ei-in-chief. ^^j^^ appointment of Colonel George Washington, 
representative from Virginia. " We, the delegates of the 
United Colonies," — thus runs the commission of Washing- 
ton, — " reposing special trust and confidence in your patriot- 
ism, conduct, and fidelity, do by these presents constitute 
and appoint you to be general and commander-in-chief of 
the army of the United Colonies. . . . And you are 
hereby vested with full power and authority to act as you 
shall think for the good and welfare of the service." Rapid 
as these outlines of events must be, they will bear repeated 
testimony to the unequalled, indeed the hitherto unconceived 
devotion of Washington to the cause of his country. His 
acceptance of the commission, itself the greatest act of sac- 
rifice that he could make, was accompanied by the refusal 
of all pecuniary compensation for his services. It was a 
memorable day when this devoted career began — June 15, 
1775. 



WAR. 193 

Z^ Bunker -A-S if to do lionor to the general thus given tliem, 
^'"- the New England troops, just declared the conti- 
nental army, furnished a detachment of one thousand, under 
Colonel Prescott, to take possession of Bunker's Hill, a 
point of great importance to the lines around Boston. He, 
through a mistake assisted by the ardor of his character, 
threw up his redoubt upon Breed's Hill, an eminence con- 
siderably nearer to the town. Reenforced by a thousand 
men, the party completed their fortifications in time to re- 
ceive the three thousand British troops assailing them from 
Boston. Twice was the advance of the enemy repelled ; 
but the failure of ammunition obhged the Americans to 
retreat, leaving one of their most heroic hearts, President 
and Major General Joseph Warren, dead upon the field. 
Four hundred and fifty of them in all were killed or wound- 
ed ; the British losing more than twice that number. The 
battle of Bunker Hill, as it was afterwards called, has been 
greatly magnified beyond the importance attached to it at 
the time. But there can be no question of its having done 
much to mortify the British, who had always boasted that 
the Americans would fly before them, as, well as much to 
elate the Americans, although they had always boasted that 
they would resist their foes, (June 17.) 

Washington heard of the battle at New York, on 

Washing- tt • i • • i 

ton at the his way to the army. Hastenmg his journey, he 
head of r^j.j.jyg^j ^^ Cambrido;e, which was to be his head 

the array ^ 

quarters, and assumed the command. On the next 
day,' July 4, he issued an order to the forces. " The Con- 
tinental Congress," he proclaimed, " having now taken all 
the troops of the several colonies, which have been raised 
or which may be hereafter raised for the support and de- 
fence of the liberties of America, into their pay and service, 
they are now the troops of the United Provinces of North 
America ; and it is hoped that all distinctions of colonies 
17 



194 PART III. 1763-1797. 

will be laid aside, so that one and the same spirit may ani- 
mate the whole. . . . The general reciuires and expects 
of all officers, not engaged on actual duty, a punctual attend- 
ance on divine service, to implore the blessings of Heaven 
upon the means used for our safety and defence." Thus 
appealing to the love of country and to the fear of God, 
Washington called upon his countrymen to do their duty in 
the war. 

Difficui- Not every one Avas disposed to hear him. In- 
ties. deed, there were but few who came up to the stan- 
dard of their chief, either as soldiers or as men. When we 
read of their deficiencies and of his embarrassments, we 
must remember that he and those like him were the repre- 
sentatives of the better class of Americans, already described 
as most prominent and most wise during the struggles of 
the preceding years. They, on the other hand, who fell 
short of the demands upon them, were of the other classes, 
the rash or the timid, the too presumptuous or the too sub- 
missive. 

Siege of Washington at once determined to lay regular 
Boston, siege to Boston. His first object was merely to 
shut up the British in the town, (July.) Presently, he 
tried to bring on an attack from the enemy against the 
American lines, (August.) This failing, he formed the pur- 
pose of attacking the British in their own lines, (Septem- 
ber.) He deferred to the objections of his officers, and put 
off the assault, without, however, abandoning his designs. 
All the while, he had no arms, no ammunition, no pay for 
his troops from Congress ; no general support from his offi.- 
cers or men ; no obedience even, at times, from the soldiers 
or from the crews of the armed vessels acting in concert 
with the army. It was very difficult to fill the ranks to any 
degree at all proportioned to the operations of the siege. 
" There must be some other stimulus," he writes to the 



WAR. 195 

president of Congress, " besides love for their country, to 
make men fond of the service." " Such a dearth of public 
spirit," he laments to a personal friend, " and such want of 
virtue, such stockjobbing and fertility to obtain advantages 
of one kind and another, I never saw before, and pray 
God's mercy that I may never be witness to again. . . . 
I tremble at the prospect. . . . Could I have foreseen 
what I have experienced and am likely to experience, no 
consideration upon earth should have induced me to accept 
this command." Such were the circumstances, and such 
the feelings, in which the commander-in-chief found himself 
conducting the great operation of the year. 

By this time there was not only an army, but a 
govern- government of America. The Continental Con- 
™^° ■ gress, declaring themselves to be acting " in defence 
of the freedom that is our birthright," took all the meas- 
ures, military, financial, and diplomatic, which the cause 
appeared to require. The organization of the army was 
continued ; that of the militia was attempted. A naval 
committee was appointed, and a navy — if the name can be 
used on so small a scale — was called into existence. Hos- 
pitals were provided. Several millions of continental cur- 
rency were issued, and a treasury department created. A 
post office was also organized. Sev^eral of the colonies who 
had applied for advice upon the point were recommended to 
frame governments for themselves. The Indian relations 
were reduced to system. A last petition to the king, with 
addresses to Great Britain and London, Ireland and Ja- 
maica, was adopted. More significant than all else was the 
appointment of a committee of secret correspondence with 
Europe. In short, the functions of a general government 
were assumed by Congress and recognized throughout the 
colonies. 

At the beginning of August, Georgia signified her acces- 



196 PART III. 1763-1797. 

„, „ . sion to the other colonies, thus completincr the thir- 

The thir- . . 

teen com- teen. A fourteenth offered itself in Transylvania, 
^ * *■ the present Kentucky, where one or two small set- 
tlements had just been made. But Congress could not 
admit the delegate of a territory which Virginia claimed as 
under her jurisdiction. The nation and the government 
remained as the Thirteen United Colonies. 
Military Military operations, apart from the siege of Bos- 
operations. ^q^^ were numerous, if not extensive. The landing 
of a British party at Gloucester was repelled. The fort 
near Charleston was seized by the Americans, who also 
drove the British ships out of the harbor. Norfolk, for 
some time in the hands of the British, was recovered after 
a gallant action. On the other hand, Stonington, Bristol, 
and Falmouth were not saved from bombardment, Fal- 
mouth (now Portland) being nearly annihilated. The 
Americans, in return, sent out their privateers ; those com- 
missioned by Washington, especially his " famous Manly," 
as he called one of his captains, doing great execution in 
Massachusetts Bay. Offensive operations were pursued on 
land. A projected expedition against Nova Scotia was 
given up, chiefly on account of the friendly feeling of that 
province. But a twofold force, partly from the New York 
and partly from the Maine side, marched against Canada. 
St. John's and Montreal were taken by the Americans under 
General Montgomery, who fell in an assault on Quebec the 
last day of the year. Arnold, the same who had gone 
against Crown Point and Ticonderoga, kept up the show of 
besieging Quebec through the winter, but in the spring the 
Americans retreated within their own borders. One of the 
most successful operations of the period was towards the 
close of winter, when fifteen hundred Highlanders and Reg- 
ulators, who had enlisted under the royal banner in North 
Carolina, were defeated by two thii'ds their number of 



WAR. 197 

Americans, under Colonel Moore. It saved the province 
to the country. 

The mention of those enlisted in the royal cause 

Loyalist?. . . ,. . . 

suggests the nicreasing divisions amongst the Amer- 
icans. A large number, who had looked on or even joined 
in the proceedings of former days, drew off, if they did not 
take a hostile position, in these days of war. Companies 
and regiments of royal or loyal Americans began to abound. 
Some of these loyalists, as they -were styled, w^re roughly 
handled by their indignant neighbors, wdio spared neither 
person nor property. One of the New York Sons of Lib- 
erty, Isaac Sears, impatient at the moderate course pursued 
by the committee of safety, brought in an armed band from 
Connecticut, to destroy the press of Rivington's Gazetteer, 
a journal in the British interest. Such doings were more 
likely to introduce dissensions amongst the patriots than to 
subdue the loyalists. But when did riot fail to go hand in 

hand with war ? 

Great Britain, on her part, was united. Few 

Great 

Britain ^^^ faint wci'c the voices raised in defence of the 

deter- Americans, since the news of Lexino-ton and Bun- 
mined. , 

ker Hill. Edmund Burke and one or tw^o of the 

same spirit continued to plead for the American cause, but 
all unavailingly. The last petition of Congress to the king 
was rejected. A bill of confiscation, as it may be called, 
was passed against the trade, the merchandise, and the ship- 
ping of the colonies ; whatever crews might be captured 
were to be impressed into the British navy. The army in 
America was augmented to forty thousand, partly by British 
and partly by German troops. In fine, the reduction of the 
colonies was the one great object with the larger part of the 
people, as with the rulers of Great Britain. 

All the wliile, Washington was before Boston. But his 
attention was not wholly concentrated there. On the con- 
17* 



198 PAHT III. 1763-1797. 

,„ , . trary, his voice was to be heard in all directions, on 

Waslnng- •' ' 

ton before the marcli to Canada, in the posts of New York, on 
board the national cruisers, at the meetings of com- 
mittees and assemblies, in the provincial legislatures, within 
Congress itself, every where pointing out what was to be 
done, and the spirit in which it was to be done. They who 
doubt his military ability or his intellectual greatness will 
do well to follow him through these first months of the war ; 
if they do it faithfully, they will doubt no more. The 
activity, the judgment, the executive power, and above all 
the moral power of the great general and the great man 
are nowhere in history more conspicuous than in those 
rude lines before Boston. 

To add to the difficulties of the sieore, the army 

Recovery ^ '' 

of the went through a complete process of disbanding and 
recruiting, on account of the general unwillingness 
to serve for any length of time. Without men and without 
munitions, Washington sublimely kept his post, until, after 
months of disappointment, he obtained the means to take 
possession of Dorchester Heights, whence the town was 
completely commanded. The enemy, under General Howe, 
had long meditated the evacuation of the place ; and they 
now the more readily agreed to leave it on condition that 
they should be unmolested. The 17th of March, 1776, 
eigrht months and a half from the time that Washington 
undertook the siege, his generalship and his constancy were 
rewarded with success. 

The vie- ^^ ^^'^^ Certainly an amazing victory. " I have 
^^'^y- been here months together," he wrote to his brother, 
" with what will scarcely be believed, not thirty rounds of 
musket cartridges to a man. . . . We have maintained 
our ground against the enemy under this want of powder, 
and we have disbanded one army, and recruited another, 
within musket shot of two and twenty regiments, the flower 



WAR. 199 

of the British army, whilst our force has been but little, if 
any, superior to theirs ; and, at last, have beaten them into 
a shameful and precipitate retreat out of a place the strong- 
est by nature on this continent, and strengthened and forti- 
fied at an enormous expense." Such being tlie result of 
the only operation in which the Americans and the British 
met each other as actual armies, there was reason for 
Washington and his true-hearted countrymen to exult and 
to hope. 

increas- But the country was in danger. An attack was 
iiig perils, feared at New York ; another at Charleston : the 
whole coast, indeed, lay open and defenceless. The year 
of warfare ended in greater apprehensions and in greater 
perils than those in which it began. 



CHAPTER III. 

Declaration of Independence. 

Transfer- The colonies Were fighting at a disadvantage, 
of col" -^^^ ^^^y were their resources, in a mihtary point 
nies to of view, inferior to those of their great antagonist ; 

states. 

this was but a minor consideration with them. They 

were taxed with rebellion ; they were branded Avith the 

name of rebels by their enemies, nay, by those of their 

own people who opposed the war. On many, these epithets 

made no impression ; they were rather acceptable than 

otherwise to the more ardent and the more violent. But 

to the moderate and to the calm, it was intolerable to be 

charged with mere sedition. They to whom the nation 

owed all that was prudent, as well as valiant in its present 

situation, were men of law and order in a peculiar degree. 

The earliest care with those of Massachusetts, after the 

affair of Lexington, had been to prove that the British 

troops were the first to fire ; in other words, that the people 

were defending, and not transgressing, their rights. So 

now it became a matter of the highest interest to set the 

war in its true light, by raising the Americans from the 

position of subjects to that of a nation. There was but 

one way, and this the transformation of the colonies into 

states. 

^ , The idea of independence, however, was of slow 

imiepenci- gi'owtli. The Mecklcuburg declaration, as we have 

read, found no f.;vor. Tlie general, if not th« 

(200) 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 201 

universal, sentiment was still in favor of reoonciliation. 
" During the course of my life," said Jolm Jay in later 
years, " and until after the second petition of Congress in 
1775, I never heard an American of any class or of any 
description express a wish for the independence of the 
colonies." But when that petition of Congress to the king 
was rejected, when the English government, in consequence, 
pledged itself to continue its system of oppression, then the 
resolution of the colonies rose, all the more determined for 
having been delayed. 

Nearly a year had elapsed since the North Caro- 

North 

Carolina li^^iaus of Mccklcnburg county made their declara- 
and vir- j^jon, wlicn the North Carolinians of the entire 

ginia, . , . , . 

colony united m authorizmg their delegates in Con- 
gress to concur with those of the other colonies in declaring 
independence, (April 23, 1776.) A few weeks afterwards, 
(May 15,) the Virginians instructed their delegates to 
propose a declaration of independence to Congress. 

Congress had already committed itself. Its rec- 

Congress. i • r- i • n ■, 

ommendations oi the year previous to some of the 
colonies, that they should set up governments for them- 
selves, had just been extended to all. It had also voted 
" that the exercise of every kind of authoritj^ under the 
crown should be totally suppressed," (May 15.) What 
else was this than to pronounce the colonies independent 
states ? Subsequent resolutions and declarations were but 
the carrying out of the decision already made, 
iiesita- ^ut as it had not been made, so it was not car- 

tion. pjg(j Qyj. ^itjjoui; hesitation. More than one earnest 
mind, bent upon independence in the end, considered the 
course of things thitherward to be much too hurried. " My 
countrymen," wrote Washington, (April 1,) "from their 
form of government, and their steady attachment hereto- 
fore to royalty, will come reluctantly into the idea of inde- 



202 PART III. 1763-1797. 

pendence ; but time and persecution bring many wonderful 
things to pass." He was right ; the spirits and numbers 
of those resolved upon immediate independence increased 
apace 

Lee's res- The instructions of Virginia were soon obeyed, 
oiution. Upon the journals of Congress, under date of June 
7, there occurs an atfecting entry of " certain resolutions 
respecting independency being moved and seconded." No 
names are mentioned, no words of the resolutions are 
recorded. It is as if Congress had felt its own feebleness 
in comparison with the solemnity of the cause, and so 
deeply, as to hold its breath and give no sign of what was 
passing. The mover was Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, 
the seconder John Adams, of Massachusetts ; and the reso- 
lution was, " That these United Colonies are, and of right 
ought to be, free and independent states ; that they are 
absolved from all allegiance to the British crown ; and that 
all political connection between them and the state of Great 
Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." 

Opposition was immediate and resolute. At its 
head stood John Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, whose 
ten years' championship of colonial rights was assurance 
of his present faithfulness. The ground common to him 
and to the other opponents of the resolution was simply the 
prematureness of the measure. Nor does it seem that they 
were altogether mistaken. Wliatever was urged by the 
advocates of the resolution, there were but seven colonies, 
the barest possible majority, to unite in favor of a proceed- 
ing so decisive, (June 10.) Instead of pressing their views, 
the party in favor of the resolution were wise enough to 
postpone its final disposition for several weeks. On the 
other side, the opposing party, so far from exciting the 
country against the resolution, appear to have decided thnt 
it should have a fair consideration, and that if the colonies 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. ^ 203 

rejecting it could be brought to favor it, thej would be 
satisfied by the delay that had been interposed for delib- 
eration 

At the same time, a committee was appointed to 
tee on prepare a declaration according to the tenor of the 
deciara- rcsolution. Thomas JeiFerson, of Virg^inia, John 

tion. . , , ' o ' 

Adams, Benjamin Franklin, of Pennsylvania, Roger 
Sherman, of Connecticut, and Robert R. Livingston, of New 
York, constituting the committee, united upon a draught by 
Jefferson. " Whether I had gathered my ideas," he said 
at a later time, " from reading or reflection, I do not know. 
I know only that I turned to neither book nor pamphlet 
while writing it. I did not consider it as any part of my 
charge to invent new ideas altogether, and to offer no senti- 
ment which had never been expressed before." Truth to 
be told, there was neither originality nor novelty in the 
production. Its facts, so far as they related to the course 
of Britain or of the British king, were peculiar to the 
cause at issue. But the principles of human and of colo- 
nial rights were substantially such as Englishman after 
Englishman, as well as American after American, had 
asserted. The merit of the document was its appropriate- 
ness, its harmony with the ideas of a people who had risen 
to defend their birtlu'ight, rather than to win any thing not 
already theirs. The committee reported the declaration to 
Congress, (June 28.) 

it^soiu- ^^^ adoption depended upon the adoption of the 
tion re^olution•of which it was but the expression. The 

resolution was therefore called up, (July 1.) A 
day's debate ensued ; nor was the decision unanimous. 
Four delegations hung back ; one, New York, because it 
had received no instructions to vote upon so grave a ques- 
tion ; the other three, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and South 
Carolina, on account of their own reluctance. The South 



204 . PART III. 1763-1797. 

Carolinians asked the postponement of a definitive vote 
until the next morning. When the morning came, they 
withdrew their opposition. The Pennsylvanian and Dela- 
ware delegates — some members retiring and others com- 
ing in — gave their voices likewise to the resolution. It 
thus received the unanimous vote of all the colonies, New 
York excepted, and she only for a few days, until her dele- 
gates could be instructed to concur with their colleagues, 
(July 9-15.) It was the 2d of July, 1776, the true date 
of American independence.* 
. , ^, The declaration followed as a matter of course. 

And the 

deciara- It was delayed only to receive a few amendments, 
when it was adopted by the same vote as the reso- 
lution, (July 4.) 

Thus were the colonies of Great Britain trans- 

The 

United formed into the United States of America. " As 
free and independent states," were the words of the 
declaration, '^ they have full power to levy war, conclude 
peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all 
other acts and things which independent states may of right 
do." No longer the subjects of Great Britain, but an 
equally independent nation, the United States were no 
longer open to imputations upon their course from abroad, 
or to doubts of it amongst themselves. When Admiral 
Lord Howe, and his brother, the general, commander-in- 
chief of the British army, offered amnesty in the king's 
name to all Americans who would return to their allegiance, 
the offer was regarded as a national insult by Congress. 
What had Great Britain to forgive, or who had asked for 
forgiveness ? 

The day after a committee had been appointed to draw 

* As the utmost discrepancy exists amongst the later histories as to 
these votes and dates, it seems advisable to state that Jefferson and 
Adams are the authorities followed in the text. 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 205 

, up the declaration, another, and a larf]rer one, re- 

Plan of ^ ' ^ o ' 

confed- ceived the charge of preparing a plan of confedera- 
tion, (June 12.) This was reported a week after 
the adoption of the declaration, but no action was taken 
upon it, (July 12.) Circumstances postponed any decision; 
nor were the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual 
Union, as they were styled, actually adopted by Congress 
until more than a year later, (November 15-17, 1777,) 
when they were recommended to the states for adoption. 
A long time elapsed before all the states complied. 
,, . Meanwhile Cono^ress continued to be the uniting 

Unity ° ^ ^ 

in Con- as wcll as the governing authority. Its members, 
si"<^ss. renewed from time to time by their respective con- 
stituencies, met together as the representatives, not merely 
of the different states, but of the common nation. It was 
imperfectly, as we shall perceive, that Congress served the 
purpose of a central power. Its treaties, its laws, its 
finances, its armaments, all depended upon the consent and 
the cooperation of the states. But it continued to be the 
body in which the states were blended together, however 
variously, in one. 

g^^^^ The states were every where forming govern- 

constitu- ments of their own. Massachusetts took the lead, 
as was observed, in the early summer of 1775. 
Six or seven months afterwards, New Hampshire organized 
her assembly and council, with a president of the latter 
body, (177G.) The same year brought about the estabhsh- 
ment of state authorities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina. 
Of the other states, Rhode Island and Connecticut were 
naturally content with the liberal governments which al- 
ready existed under their ancient charters. New York 
and Georgia set up their governments a year subsequently, 
(1777.) But the original forms underwent numerous and 
18 



206 PART III. 1763-1797. 

repeated modifications ; each state amending its constitution 
or constructing a new one, according to its exigencies. As 
a general thing, each had a governor, with or without a 
council, for an executive ; a council, or Senate, and a House 
of Representatives, for a legislature ; and one or more 
judicial bodies for a judiciary. Indeed, the states were 
much more thoroughly organized than the nation. 

Both constitutions and declarations had arisen 

Divisions . •,. . . rr\i f^n 

amongst amidst the most distractrng divisions, ihe dmer- 
thepeo- enceg ill Congress, or amongst the leading class 

pie. o ' ... . 

throughout the country, were trifling in comparison 
with the factions of the people as a whole. On this side 
were flaming patriots, who thought nothing done unless 
outcry and force were employed ; on that were selfish and 
abject spirits, thinking that nothing should be done at all. 
Tories, or loyalists, abounded in one place ; in another, 
rioters and marauders ; every where dark plots were laid, 
dark deeds perpetrated. The greater was the work of 
those, the few, the wise, and the devoted, who led the 
nation through its strifes to independence. 



I 



CHAPTER IV. 

War, continued. 

Second Period. 

L- Three ^HE WRF of independence naturally divides itself 

periods, into three periods. Of these, the first has been de- 
scribed in a preceding chapter, as beginning with the arm- 
ing of Massachusetts, in October, 1774, and extending to 
the recovery of Boston, in March, 1776 — a period of a 
year and a half, of which something less than a year, dat- 
ing from the aifrays at Lexington and Concord, was actually 
a period of war. We are now to go through the second 
and third periods. 

The second period is of little more than two years 
teristics —from April, 1776, to July, 1778. The chief 
ond^'^err poin^s to characterize it are these, namely, that the 
od- main operations were in the north, and that the 

Americans fought their battles without allies. 

The Declaration of Independence was transmitted 

rveception . , . /. • i i j. c r^ 

oftiie Dee to the commander-m-chiet, with the request ot Ivon- 
laiatioa. ^^^^^ ^^ u 1^^^^ -j. proclaimed at the head of the 

army." It was what both commander and army had been 
waiting for. " The general hopes " — thus ran the order of 
the day — " that this important event will serve as a fresh 
incentive to every officer and soldier to act with fidelity and 
courage, as knowing that now the peace and safety of his 
country depend, under God, solely on the success of our 

(207) 



208 PART III. 1763-1797. 

arms, and that he is now in the service of a state possessed 

of sufficient power to reward his merit and advance him to 

the highest honors of a free country," (July 9.) On the 

same day, Washington wrote to the president of Congress : 

" I caused the Declaration to be proclaimed before all the 

army under my immediate command, and have the pleasure 

to inform Congress that the measure seemed to have their 

most hearty assent ; the expressions and behavior, both of 

officers and men, testifying their warmest approbation of it." 

The adhesion of the army was one thing ; their obedience 

to the inspiration which their commander suggested was 

another. But, for the moment, a new impulse seemed to be 

felt by all. 

^ A brilliant feat of arms had preceded the dec- 
Defence of ^ 

Charles- laration. The anticipated descent upon the south- 
ern coast was made off Charleston, by a British 
force, partly land and partly naval, under the command of 
General Clinton and Admiral Parker. The American?, 
chiefly militia, were under General Lee. Fort Sullivan,* a 
few miles below Charleston, became the object of attack. 
It was so gallantly defended, the fort itself by Colonel 
Moultrie, and an adjoining battery by Colonel Thomson, 
that the British were obliged to abandon their expedition 
and retire to the north, (June 28.) A long time passed 
before the enemy reappeared in the south. 

Meanwhile Washington had transferred his quar- 
New ters from Boston to New York, (April 13,) which 
he was busy in fortifying against the expected foe. 
Troops from Halifax, under General Howe, joined by 
British and Hessians under Admiral Howe, and by the dis- 
comfited forces of the southern expedition, landed at various 
times on Staten Island, to the number of between twenty 

* Afterwards Fort Moultrie. 



WAR, CONTINUED. 209 

and thirty thousand. The number of the Americans was 
considerably less. After long delays, the enemy crossed to 
Long Island, and routed the American detachments under 
General Putnam, (August 27.) A speedy retreat to New 
York Island alone saved the Americans from a surrender. 
A fortnight after, the British crossed in pursuit, the ad- 
vanced posts of the Americans actually flying before them, 
(September 15.) The city of New York was at once evac- 
uated by Washington, who led his forces towards the north. 
'* We are now encamped," he writes, " with the main body 
of the army on the Heights of Haerlem, where 1 should 
hope the enemy would meet with a defeat in case of an 
attack, if the generality of our troops would behave with 
tolerable bravery. But experience, to my extreme afflic- 
tion, has convinced me that this is rather to be wished for 
than expected." He did not write thus without good rea- 
son. Little besides incompetency and desertion on the part 
of his men had attended his vain attempt to save New 
Y^ork. 

Loss succeeded loss. Two defeats on Lake 

Loss of 

Lake Champlain drove the Americans, under Benedict 
pia^n and Amold, uot Only from the lake, but from the fortress 
the lower of Crown Poiut, (Octobcr 11-14.) In the neigh- 
. " borhood of New York, Washington was obliged to 
abandon one position after another ; the defeat of White 
Plains (October 28) making still farther retreat necessary. 
The forts upon the Hudson were presently lost ; Fort Wash- 
ington being taken w^ith its garrison, (November 16,) and 
Fort Lee being evacuated, (November 20.) With a di- 
minishing army, in which, moreover, he had lost his confi- 
dence, the commander-in-chief decided to fall back from the 
banks of the Hudson into New Jersey. 
Loss of At the same time that the Americans were re- 
Newport, treating from New York, another of their chiel 
18* 



210 PART III. 1763-1797. 

towns upon the seaboard was captured. A large detach- 
ment from the British army took possession of Newport 
without a blow, (December 8.) The island was overrun, 
and Providence blockaded. 

, Losses increased defections. " Between you and 

Defence of .' 

New Jer- me," writcs Washington on his retreat, " I think our 
^^^' affairs are in a very bad condition, — not so much 
from the apprehension of General Howe's army, as from 
the defection of New York, the Jerseys, and Pennsylvania. 
In short, the conduct of the Jerseys has been most infamous. 
. . . If every nerve is not strained, ... I think the 
game is pretty nearly up," (December 18.) Disheartening 
as were the circumstances, he called around him his more 
faithful officers, and with them planned an achievement 
which seemed to require all the encouragements of pros- 
perity and of sympathy. Followed by his handful of twen- 
ty-four hundred, while other detachments failed to keep up 
with him, he crossed the Delaware amid the ice and the 
cold of Christmas night, and on the following morning took 
a thousand Hessian prisoners at Trenton. The British 
immediately advanced against him. He could not meet 
them ; for it would be destruction to his inferior numbers. 
He would not retreat before them ; for it would be despair 
to his gallant adherents. To avoid either alternative, he 
marched, after a slight engagement, upon the rear of the 
hostile army at Princeton, (January 3.) Three hundred 
prisoners, the safety and the increased animation of his sol- 
diers and his countrymen, were his reward. The only draw- 
back was the loss of many brave spirits, amongst whom none 
was braver than General Mercer. Had Washington had 
but a few hundred fresh troops, he would have pushed on 
to Brunswick and destroyed the entire stores of the enemy. 
As it was, the rising of the militia, and the continued activi- 
ty of Washington, even in his winter quarters, cleared the 



WAR, CONTINUED. 211 

State of the invaders, excepting at Brunswick and Amboy. 
Six months after, it was totally evacuated, (June 30, 1777.) 
All the time that Washington was thus retreating 
aof ot'" and advancing, he was enforcing the lesson of his 
''''"^- experiences upon the government. He could do 
comparatively little, as he repeatedly informed Congress, 
for want of no less essential an instrument than an army. 
The American forces, during the campaign, had consisted in 
part of continental, or regular, and in part of militia troops, 
all raised on different terras, — that is, by different bounties 
and under different appointments, — by the different states. 
What Washington wanted, what the country needed, was 
an army recruited, officered, equipped, and paid upon a 
national system. Nor was Congress insensible to the neces- 
sity. Before the declaration of independence, a board of 
war and of ordnance had been chosen from the members of 
Congress, to direct the miUtary affairs of the nation. After- 
wards, when the calamities of the autumn were weighing 
heavily. Congress ordered the formation of a continental 
army. But the wants, thus attempted to be supplied, con- 
tinued. It was left entirely to the states to raise the troops 
and to- appoint all but the general officers, while the pay 
and the term of enlistment proposed by Congress were 
wholly inadequate to the emergencies on which Washington 
insisted. " The measure was not commenced," wrote he to 
his brother, " till it was too late to be effected, and then in 
such a manner as to bid adieu to every hope of getting an 
army from which any services are to be expected." " The 
unhappy policy of short enlistments," the need of " some 
greater encouragement" in pay, "the different states' nomi- 
nating such officers as are not fit to be shoeblacks," the 
tendency of the states to fall back from regular troops upon 
the militia, " a destructive, expensive, and disorderly mob," 

all these complaints from the commander-in-chief show 

that there was still no organization of the army. 



212 PART 111. 17G3-1797. 

Dictator- Alarmed by the disasters of the time, Congress 
ship, resolved, " that General Washington shall be, and 
he is hereby, vested with full, ample, and complete powers " 
to raise, officer, and equip an army. To provide for its 
necessities, he was authorized " to take, wherever he may 
be, whatever he may want for the use of the army, if the in- 
habitants will not sell it, allowing a reasonable price for the 
same." He was also commissioned " to arrest and confine 
persons who refuse to take the continental currency, or are 
otherwise disaffected to the American cause," (December 
27, 1776.) This commission of a dictatorship, the last 
resort of the ineffective Congress, and yet one of that body's 
wisest deeds, was to continue six months. It was after- 
wards renewed in much the same terms. But the powers 
were too dictatorial for such a man as Washington to exer- 
cise fully ; nor did the partial use which he made of them 
effect the object of so great importance in his eyes. The 
war went on without any thing that could be called an actual 
army on the American side. 

Paper The Want of an army sprang, to a great degree, 

money, from the want of a treasury. Congress, voting all 
sorts of appropriations, had no way of meeting them but by 
continued issues of paper money. These soon began to 
depreciate ; the depreciation required larger amounts to be 
put forth ; and then the larger amounts added to the depre- 
ciation. When the value of the bills had sunk very low, 
an attempt was made to restore the currency by recalling 
the old issues and sending out new ones ; but these, too, 
depreciated fast. Then lotteries were resorted to, and 
loans, both at home and abroad. The states were called in, 
and taxes raised by them were substituted for the national 
bills. But the embarrassments of the finances were irrepa- 
rable. Every year added to the debt and to the poverty of 
the nation. 



WAR, CONTINUED. 213 

. . , In tlie midst of trials so various and so profound, 

Arrival '■ ' 

of Lafay- there was a thrill of hope. It was caused by the 
arrival of a Frenchman, not yet twenty years old, 
wlio came bearing the sympathies of the old world to the 
new. " It was the last combat of liberty," wrote Lafayette, 
as he afterwards recalled his early inspirations. While he 
was hastening his departure from France, the news of the 
defeats in New York arrived, to throw the American causei 
into the shade, even in the eyes of the commissioners who 
had been sent to seek supplies in France. They would 
have dissuaded the young Frenchman from his projects. 
" "We must be of good cheer," he replied ; " it is in danger 
that I like best to share your fortunes." Escaping the pur- 
suit of the government, who would have prevented a man 
of so high a rank as the Marquis de Lafayette from com- 
promising them with the English by joining the Americans; 
tearing himself from a brilliant home, and a wife as young 
in years as he, Lafayette crossed the sea in his own vessel, 
and reached the coast of Carolina in safety. He hastened 
to Pliiladelphia to offer his services to Congress, which, 
more and more wont to be behindhand in its mission, gave 
him a cold welcome through the committee of foreign 
affairs. " The coldness was such," he wrote, " as to amount 
to a rejection ; but without being disconcerted by the man- 
ner of the members, I begged them to return to the hall, 
and to read the following note : ' After the sacrifices which 
I have made, I have the right to demand two favors : one 
is to serve at my own expense, the other to commence as a 
volunteer.' " Congress was touched, and appointed the 
generous stranger a major-general, (July 31, 1777.) He 
found no hesitation in the welcome which he received from 
Washington on their first meeting. " Make my head quar- 
ters your home," was the warm and appreciative greeting 
from the commander-in-chief to the young major-general. 



214 PART III. 1763-1797. 

The army and the people imitated Washington's example, 
and gave their confidence to the noble Frenchman, with joy 
that their cause had attracted such a champion. 

The spring of 1777 was marked only by some 
of Eur- predatory excursions from tlie British side into Con- 
^"^°^' nccticut, and from the American into Long Island. 
The summer brought about the evacuation of New Jersey, 
as has been mentioned. But the British retired only to 
strike harder elsewhere. A well-appointed army under 
General Burgoyne was already on its march from Canada 
to Lake Champlain and the Hudson. As this descended, it 
was the plan of the British in New York to ascend the 
Hudson, meeting the other army, and cutting off the com- 
munication between New England and her sister states. 
It was a promising scheme, and the first movements in it 
were successful. Burgoyne took Ticonderoga, and swept 
the adjacent country, menacing Northern New York on his 
right, and the Green Mountain region on his left. General 
St. Clair, who had evacuated Ticonderoga, could make no 
resistance ; nor was his superior officer. General Schuyler, 
the commander of the northern army, in any position to 
check the advance of the enemy. But Schuyler bore up 
bravely ; and the officers under him did their part. A 
British detachment against Bennington was defeated by 
John vStark and his New England militia, (August 16.) 
Fort Schuyler was defended by continental troops, the 
British retiring on the approach of reenforcements under 
Arnold, (August 22.) Just as these reverses had checked 
the advance of Burgoyne, the gallant Schuyler was ousted 
of his command to make room for General Gates, a very 
inferior man, if not a very inferior general. He, profiting 
by the preparations of his predecessor, met the British, and 
defeating them in two actions near Saratoga, (September 
19, October 7,) compelled them to surrender. Nearly six 



WAR, CONTINUED. 215 

thousand troops laid down their arms ; but more than twice 
that number w^ere now collected on the American side, 
(October 16.) 

While this triumph was won, losses were still 
the Hud- occurring elsewhere. The advance of the British 
son High- fj-Qjjj "Sew York, after beino; stranfjely delayed, be- 
gan with the capture of the forts which protected 
the Highlands, (October 5-G.) But on proceeding some 
way farther up the river, the enemy found it advisable to 
return to New York. 

The main army of Great Britain was that which 

Loss of '' 

Phiiadei- Washington had to deal with in New Jersey and 
the vicinity. " If General Howe can be kept at 
bay," wrote the commander-in-chief, " and prevented from 
effecting his principal purposes, the successes of General 
Burgoyne, whatever they may be, must be partial and tem- 
porary." After much uncertainty as to the intentions of 
the British general, he suddenly appeared in the Chesa- 
peake, and landing, prepared to advance against Philadel- 
phia, (August 25.) Washington immediately marched his 
entire army of about eleven thousand to stop tlie progress 
of the enemy. Notwithstanding the superior number — 
about seventeen thousand — opposed to him, Washington 
decided that battle must be given for the sake of Philadel- 
phia. After various skirmishes, a general engagement took 
place by the Brandywine, resulting in the defeat of the 
Americans, (September 11.) But so little were they dis- 
pirited, that their commander decided upon immediately 
fighting a second battle, which was prevented only by a 
great storm. Washington then withdrew tow^ards the in- 
terior, and Howe took possession of Philadelphia, (Septem- 
ber 26.) Not yet willing to abandon the city, Washington 
attacked the main division of the British encamped at 
Germantown. At the very moment of victory, a panic 

s 



216 PART III. 1763-1797. 

seized the Americans, and tliey retreated, (October 4.) 
There was no help for Philadelphia ; it was decidedly lost. 
The contrast betvreen the defeat of Burgoj^ne 
tou^s em- ^^^ ^^^® ^os^ ^^ Philadelphia was made a matter 
banass- Qf reproach to the commander-in-chief. Let him 
make his own defence. " I was left," he says, " to 
fight two battles, in order, if possible, to save Pliiladelphia, 
with less numbers than composed the army of my antago- 
nist. . . . Had the same spirit pervaded the people 
of this and the neighboring states, ... as the states 
of New York and New England, ... we might be- 
fore this time have had General Howe nearly in the 
situation of General Burgoyne, with this difference — that 
the former would never have been out of reach of his ships, 
whilst the latter increased his danger every step he took." 
More than this, Washington conducted his operations in a 
district where great disaffection to the American cause cut 
off supplies for the army, and intelligence of the enemy. 
To have done what he did, notwithstanding these embar- 
rassments, was greater than a victory. It was felt to be so 
at the time. " Nothing," said the French minister, the 
Count de Vergennes, to the American commissioners in 
France, — " nothing has struck me so much as General 
Washington's attacking and giving battle to General 
Howe's army : to bring an army, raised within a year, 
to this, promises every thing." 

The enemy were not yet secure in Philadelphia, 
the Deia- tlic Delaware below the city being still in the pos- 
session of the Americans. Nor did they give it up 
without a struggle. Fort Mercer, upon the Jersey shore, 
was gallantly defended under Lieutenant Colonel Christo- 
pher Greene against a Hessian attack, (October 22 ;) 
but when Fort Mifflin, upon an island in the river, gave 
way after a noble struggle, under Lieutenant Colonel Sam- 



WAR, CONTINUED. 217 

nel Smith, (November 15,) Fort Mercer was evacuated, 
and the Delaware was lost, (November 20.) An attack 
meditated by the Americans upon Philadelphia, and one 
attempted by the British upon the American camp at 
Whitemarsh, (December 5-8,) resulted in nothing. The 
operations of 1777 were ended. 

wickes's C)ne enterprise of the year is not to be passed 
cruise, ovcr. Captain Wickes, of the cruiser Reprisal, 
after distinguishing himself in the AVest Indies, sailed for 
France in the autumn of 1776. Encouraged by his suc- 
cess in making prizes in the Bay of Biscay, Wickes started 
on a cruise round Ireland in the following summer, (1777.) 
Attended by the Lexington and the Dolphin, the Reprisal 
swept the Irish and the English seas of their merchantmen. 
But on the way to America, the Lexington was captured, 
and the Reprisal, with the gallant Wickes and all his creWj 
was lost on the coast of Newfoundland. It was for the 
navy, of wliich Wickes was so great an ornament, that a 
national flag had been adopted in the summer of his cruise, 
(June 14.) 

" I see plainly," wrote Lafayette to Washington, 
against ^^ the close of the year, " that America can defend 
Washing- herself, if proper measures are taken ; but I begin 
to fear that she may be lost by herself and her own 
sons. "VVlien I was in Europe, I thought that here almost 
every man was a lover of liberty, and would rather die 
free than live a slave. You can conceive my astonishment, 
when I saw that toryism was as apparently professed as 
whiggism itself" " We must not," replied Washington, " in 
so great a contest, expect to meet with nothing but sun- 
shine." These mournful complaints, this cheerful answer, 
referred to an intrigue that had been formed asrainst Wash- 
ington, for the purpose of displacing him from his com- 
mand. Generals Gates and Mifflin, both members of the 
19 



218 PART III. 1763-1797. 

board of war, lately organized, with Conway, a foreign 
general in the service, were at the head of a cabal, which 
was secretly supported by some members of Congress. 
Had their unworthy plots prevailed, had their anon^Tiious 
letters to the civil authorities, and their underhand appeala 
to military men, succeeded, Washington would have been 
superseded by Gates or by Lee, it was uncertain which, 
both of British birth, both of far more selfishness than 
magnanimity, of far more pretension than power. Gates, 
as we shall read hereafter, met the most utter of all the 
defeats, Lee conducted the most shameful of all the 
retreats, in which the Americans were involved. Happily 
for the struggling nation, thej^e men were not its leaders. 
The cabal in which they were involved fell asunder ; yet 
without crushing them beneath its ruins. Tliey retained 
their offices and their honors, as well as Washington. 
Army The army was full of quarrels. Sectional jeal- 

quarreis. ousics wcre activc, the northern man distrusting the 
southern, and the southern the northern. National jeal- 
ousies were equally rife, the American officers opposing 
the foreign, and the foreign officers the American. More 
serious, because more reasonable, were the angry feelings 
excited in the army against Congress, now for its inter- 
ference, and now for its neglect. Much ill will on both 
sides was excited by the question of half pay for life to the 
officers ; it being opposed in Congress, and settled only by 
a compromise of half pay for seven years after the conclu- 
sion of the war. Washington contended with all the intel- 
lectual and moral strength of his nature against the jeal- 
ousy which Congress unhappily entertained of the army. 
*' The prejudices of other countries," as he says, " have 
only gone to them [the troops] in time of peace. 
It is our policy to be prejudiced against them in time of 
war ; though they are citizens, Imving all the ties and 
interests of citizens." 



Army 



WAR, CONTINUED. 219 

The experience of the past twelvemonth had 
snfiFer- given Washington more confidence m his soldiers. 
^"^^' He had had time to learn their better points, their 
enthusiasm, their endurance, their devotion. The winter 
following the loss of Philadelphia was one of cruel suffer- 
ings, and the manner in which they were borne formed a 
new link between the troops and the commander. His 
remonstrances against the jealousies of Congress are accom- 
panied by representations of the agonies of the army. 
" Without arrogance or the smallest deviation from truth, 
it may be said that no history now extant can furnish an 
instance of an army's suffering such hardships as ours has 
done, bearing them with the same patience and fortitude. 
To see men without clothes to cover their nakedness, with- 
out blankets to lie on, without shoes, (for the want of 
which their marches might be traced by the blood from 
their feet,) and almost as often without provisions as with 
them ; marching through frost and snow, and at Christmas 
taking up their winter quarters within a day's march of the 
enemy, without a house or hut to cover them, till they 
could be built, and submitting without a murmur, is a proof 
of patience and obedience which, in my opinion, can scarce 
be paralleled." This story, at once so heroic and so sad, is 
dated from Valley Forge. 

Congress, meanwhile, though finding time to abet 

Aspect o ' ' r> o ^ ^ 

of Con- the enemies of Washington, and to suspect his faith- 
gress. |.^j followers, was far from active in promoting 
the interests of the nation. Great changes had taken 
place in the composition of the assembly. Many of the 
earlier members had retired, some to the offices of their 
respective states, some to the field, some to diplomacy, some 
to private life. But a very small number attended the 
sessions ; twenty-five or thirty making what was now con- 
sidered quite a full Congress. " America once had a repre- 
sentation," wrote Alexander Hamilton, one of Washington's 



220 PART III. 1763-1797. 

aids, from head quarters, " that would do honor to any age 
or nation. The present falling off is very alarming and 
dangerous." 

The question of foreign alliances had been started 
with at an early date. It met with very considerable 
opposition. The more earnest spirits thought it 
humiliating to court the protection of the European pow- 
ers. They also thought it more likely to increase the dan- 
gers than the resources of the country to be drawn into 
the interests and the intrigues of the old world. But as 
time passed, and the difficulties of the war increased, the 
tendency to foreign connections grew stronger. Before 
the declaration of independence, Silas Deane was sent 
to France, as an agent, with hints of an alliance. Ere he 
reached his destination, a secret subsidy had been promised 
to the Americans. Meanwhile a committee of Conoress 

o 

was appointed " to prepare a plan of treaties to be proposed 
to foreign powers," (June, 1776.) Their plan being adopt- 
ed, Deane, Benjamin Franklin, and Arthur Lee, of Vir- 
ginia, were appointed commissioners to France, (Septem- 
ber ;) others being sent to Spain, Prussia, Austria, and 
Tuscany, (December.) The French envoys, amongst 
whom Deane gave place to John Adams, devoted quite 
as much attention to their own disputes as to the negotia- 
tions with which they were intrusted. But the disposition 
of France against her old enemy of England was too 
decided to require much diplomacy on the part of America. 
After a year's delay, a treaty between the French king, 
Louis XYL, and the United States was made, (January 30, 
February 6, 1778,) and ratified, (May 5.) 
^ . . , The news of the treaty broke like a thunderbolt 

British "^ 

concilia- upon the British ministry. Three years had their 

armies, superior both in discipline and in number, 

contended against the so-called rebels ; and what had been 

gained ? A few towns on the seaboard. New York, New- 



WAR, CONTINUED. 221 

port, Philadelpliia, the islands near New York, the island 
on which Newport stands, the lower banks of the Hudson 
and of the Delaware. This was all. Nothing had been, 
nothing, it must have almost seemed, could be, gained ex- 
cept upon the coast ; the interior was untenable, if not 
unconquerable. And what had been lost ? Twenty thou- 
sand troops, hundreds of vessels, millions of treasure ; to 
say nothing of the colonial commerce, once so precious, and 
now so worthless. It might well strike the ministry, that 
they must win back their colonies by some other means 
than war, especially if the French were to be parties in the 
strife. Accordingly, Lord North laid before ParUament a 
bill renouncing the purpose of taxing America, and another 
providing for commissioners to bring about a reconciliation, 
(February 17.) The bills were passed, and three commis- 
sioners were appointed to act with the military and the 
naval commanders in procuring the submission of the 
United States. To their proposals Congress returned an 
answer on the anniversary of Bunker Hill, refusing to enter 
into any negotiations until the independence of the nation 
was recognized. The commissioners appealed from Con- 
gress to the states ; but in vain. Their mission was fruit- 
less, except in proving that the United States would never 
relapse into British colonies. 

Desirous of concentratinor his forces before the 

Recovery '-' 

of Phiia- French appeared in the field, Sir Henry Clinton, 
deiphia. ^^^ ^j_^^ British commander-in-chief, evacuated 
Philadelphia, (June 18.) Washington instantly set out 
in pursuit of the enemy. Coming up with them in a few 
days, he ordered General Lee, commanding the van of the 
army, to begin the attack in the morning. Lee began it 
by making a retreat, notwithstanding the remonstrances of 
Lafayette, who had held the command until Avithin a few- 
hours. But for Washington's coming up in time to arrest 
19* 



222 PART III. 1763-1797. 

the flight of the troops under Lee, and to protect the ad- 
vance of his own soldiers, the army would have been lost. 
As it wasj he formed his line and drove the British from 
the field of Monmouth, (June 28.) They stole away in the 
nio-ht, and reached New York with still more loss from de- 
sertion than from battle. 

At about the same time, a Virginia expedition, 

X 0SS6S* 

sion of under the command of Major Clarke, surprised the 
Uinois. j^j.-|^-g|^ garrison at Kaskaskia, (July 4,) and took 
possession of the surrounding villages. The more important 
post of Vincennes was afterwards secured by the aid of its 
French inhabitants.* The country was organized as a part 
of Virginia, under the name of Illinois county. 
End of Thus the end of the period finds the Americans 
the conquerors as well as the British. If the latter have 

P®"^ • New York and Newport, with their neighborhoods, 
the former are in possession of Illinois. The main forces on 
either side are again where tbey were at the beginning of the 
period, save that the British are now in New York, and 
the Americans waiting their opportunity to retake the city. 
" It is not a little pleasing, nor less wonderful to contem- 
plate," wrote Washington from his camp at White Plains, 
" that after two years' manoeuvring, and undergoing the 
strangest vicissitudes that perhaps ever attended any one 
contest since the creation, both armies are brouglit back to 
the very point they set out from, and that the offending 
party at the beginning is now reduced to the use of the 
spade and pickaxe for defence. The hand of Providence 
has been so conspicuous in all this, that he need be worse 
than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked that 
has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations." 

* It was subsequently surprised by a British party, but recovered by 
Clarke in the beginning of the following year. 



CHAPTER V. 

War, continued. 
Third Period. 

Charac- The third and last period of the war extends 
tenstics. fi-Qjn July, 1778, to January, 1784, five years and a 
half. Its characteristics are, the alliance of the French 
with the Americans, and the concentration of the more 
important operations in the Southern States. These points, 
it is to be noted, are precisely the opposite of those which 
characterized the preceding period. 

The first minister of France to the United States, 

Failure to 

recover M. Gerard, came accompanied by a fleet and army, 
ewpoi . yj-j^gj. D'Egtaing, (July.) " Unforeseen and unfa- 
vorable circumstances," as Washington wrote, " lessened the 
importance of the French services in a great degree.'* In 
the first place, the arrival was just late enough to miss the 
opportunity of surprising the British fleet in the Delaware, 
not to mention the British army on its retreat to New York. 
In the next place, the French vessels proved to be of too 
great draught to penetrate the channel and cooperate in an 
attack upon New York. Thus disappointing and disap- 
pointed, D'Estaing engaged in an enterprise against New- 
port, still in British hands. It proved another failure. 
But not through the French alone ; the American troops 
that Avere to enter the island at the north being greatly be- 
hindhand. The same day that they took their place, under 

(223) 



224 PART III. 1763-1797. 

Sullivan, Greene, and Lafayette, the French left theirs at 
the lower end of the island in order to meet the British fleet 
arriving from New York, (August 10.) A severe storm 
prevented more than a partial engagement ; but D'Estaing 
returned to Newport only to plead the injuries received in 
the gale as compelling his retirement to Boston for repairs. 
The orders of the French government had been peremptory 
that in case of any damage to the fleet it sliould put into 
port at once. So far was D'Estaing from avoiding action 
on personal grounds, that when Lafayette hurried to Bos- 
ton to persuade his countrymen to return, the commander 
offered to serve as a volunteer until the fleet should be refit- 
ted. The Americans, however, talked of desertion and of 
ineflficiency, — so freely, indeed, as to affront their faithful 
Lafayette. At the same time, large numbers of them imi- 
tated the very course which they censured, by deserting 
their own army. The remaining forces retreated from their 
lines to the northern end of the island, and, after an en- 
gagement, withdrew to the mainland, (August 30.) It 
required all the good offices of Lafayette, of AVashington, 
and of Congress, to keep the peace between the Americans 
and their allies. D'Estaing, soothed by the language of 
those whom he most respected, was provoked, on the other 
hand, by the hostility of the masses, both in the army and 
amongst the people. Collisions between his men and the 
Bostonians kept up his disgust ; and, when his fleet was re- 
paired, he sailed for the West Indies, (November.) 

The summer and autumn passed away without 
and^in- ^^J further exertions of moment upon the American 
dian rav- gj^j^^ Qj^ |.]^g p^^^^ of t^^ British, there was nothing 
attempted that would not have been far better unat- 
tempted. Marauding parties from Newport went against 
New Bedford and Fairhaven. Others from New York 
went against Little Egg Harbor. Tories and Indians — 



WAll, CONTINUED. 225 

<^ a collection of banditti," as they were rightly styled by 
AYashington, descended from the northern country to wreak 
massacre at Wyoming and at Cherry Valley. The war 
seemed to be assuming a new character: it was one of 
ravao-es unworthy of any cause, and most unworthy of such 
a cause as the British professed to be. 

Affairs were at a low state amongst the Ameri- 

Decline of 

Americau cans. " The common interests of America," wrote 
*^^'^^- Washington at the close of 1778, "arc mouldering 
and sinking into irretrievable ruin." Was he who had 
never despaired at length despairing ? There was reason 
to do so. " If I were to be called upon," he said, " to draw 
a picture of the times and of men, from what I have seen, 
heard, and in part know, I should in one word say that idle- 
ness, dissipation, and extravagance seem to have laid fast 
hold upon most of them ; that speculation, peculation, and 
an insatiable thirst for riches seem to have got the. better 
of every other consideration, and almost of every order of 
men ; that j)arty disputes and personal quarrels are the 
great business of the day ; whilst the momentous concerns 
of an empire, a great and accumulating debt, ruined finances, 
depreciated money, and want of credit, which, in its conse- 
quences, is the want of every thing, are but secondary con- 
siderations, and postponed from day to day, from week to 
week, as if our affairs wore the most promising aspect. 
After drawing this picture, Avhich from my soul I believe to 
be a true one, I need not repeat to you that I am alarmed, 
and wish to see my countrymen roused." This gloomy 
sketch is of the government — Congress and the various 
officials at Philadelphia. AYhat was true of the govern- 
ment Avas true of the people, save only the diminishing 
rather than increasing class to which we have frequently 
referred, as constituting the strength of the nation. 

A border warfare had been carried on during two sue- 



226 PART III. 1763-1797. 

Loss of cessive summers, (1777-78,) between East Florida 
Ueorgia. e^^^^l Georgia. The British authorities sent parties 
from their garrisons, on one side, and on the other, the 
Americans, chieily Georgians and CaroUnians, mustered 
their mihtia. Kothing, however, but alarm and bloodshed 
had been accompiiohed, when, at the close of 1778, a serious 
invasion of Georgia was planned by the British commander. 
Twenty-live hundred troops from J^^ew York, under the 
command of Lieutenant Colonel Campbell, landed near Sa- 
vannah. Ha:rdly nine hundi-ed Americans, under General 
Howe, were there to oppose them ; and, after a short en- 
counter, the town was taken, (December 29.) A few days 
later, the only other strong place upon the seaboard, Sun- 
bury, surrendered to a force of two thousand British, ad- 
vancing, under General Prevost, from Florida. Prevost, 
taking command of the united forces of the British, sent 
Colonel Campbell against Augusta. The expedition, suc- 
cessful at first, was soon so threatened by the operations of 
various partisans, and by those of General Lincoln, the 
commander of the continental troops, that Campbell evacu- 
ated Augusta after a fortnight^s possession. Prevost then 
advanced from Savannah. An American force, under 
General Ashe, was routed at Brier Creek, and Georgia was 
lost, (March 4, 1779.) A few months later. Sir James 
"Wright, the royal governor at the beginning of the war, 
returned and set up the provincial government once more. 

The conqueror of Georgia aspired to become the 
Charles- conqueror of Carolina. With chosen troops, and a 
*°°" numerous body of Indians, Prevost set out against 
Charleston. He was met before that town by the legion 
under Count Pulaski, a Pole who had been in the American 
service for nearly two years ; but Pulaski's men were scat- 
tered, and Prevost pressed on. Tlie militia, assembled for 
the defence of the place, were under the orders of Governor 



WAR, CONTINUED. 227 

Kutledge ; the continental troops under those of Charleston's 
earher defender, Moultrie. But the disparity of forces was 
fearful, and proposals for surrender were under considera- 
tion, when the approach of General Lincohi with his aimy 
compelled the British to retire, (May 12.) It was more 
than a month, however, before they left the adjacent coun- 
try. They then withdrew to Savannah and St. Augustine. 
The Americans were by no means disposed to 

Failure to ••,,/. >^ 

recover acquiescc in the loss of Georgia. On the reappear- 
Savan- ^jj^.^ ^f ^j^g French fleet, under D'Estainsr, after a 

nah. , ^ ' _ ^' 

successful cruise in the West Indies, he consented to 
join General Lincoln in an attack on Savannah, (Septem- 
ber.) But he was too apprehensive of being surprised by 
the British fleet, as well as too desirous of getting back to 
the larger operations in the West Indies, to be a useful ally. 
The impatience of D'Estaing precipitated an assault upon 
the town, in w^hich Pulaski fell, and both the French and 
the Americans suffered great loss, (October 9.) The 
French sailed southward ; the Americans retired to the inte- 
rior, leaving Savannah to the enemy. . 

Previously to the events last described, Viro^inia 

Invasion '' _ ^ 

ofvir- had been invaded. An expedition from New York, 
^*°'^' landing at Portsmouth, plundered that town and all 
the neighboring country. Not a blow was struck against 
the fo(i. But booty rather than conquest being their ob- 
ject, they withdrew, (May.) 

The operations in the north during the year were 
in the of altogether inferior importance. As the main 
"*''■*''■ body of the British continued at New York, Wash- 
ington kept his small army in that vicinity. But he had no 
plans of decisive action. On making his preparations at 
the beginning of the year, he resolved upon an offensive 
course towards the Indians of Western New York, whose 
repeated hostilities, in conjunction with the British, w^ere 



228 PART III. 17G3-1797. 

chastised by an American expedition under General Sulli- 
van, (August and September.) In relation to the British, 
Washington could hold only a defensive attitude. Yet, 
when Stony Point and Yerplanck Point were taken, to the 
great peril of the Highland fortifications, as well as to the 
great interruption of intercourse with New England, Wash- 
ington decided upon striking a blow. A gallant party, 
under the gallant Wayne, surprised the strong works which 
the British had constructed at Stony Point, (July 15,) and, 
though obliged to evacuate them, destroyed them, and re- 
covered the Hudson, that is, the part which had been 
recently taken from the Americans. The fortification of 
West Point was undertaken, as an additional safeguard. In 
other directions, beyond the immediate reach of Washing- 
ton, although never beyond his interest and his influence, the 
movements of the year were still less effective. Connecti- 
cut was invaded by a British force from New York, 
and great was the devastation, yet not without resistance, 
(July.) At the same period, a force from Massachusetts 
assailed a post which the British had taken on the Penob- 
scot, but with great loss. Some months later, apprehen- 
sions of the French fleet induced the British commander 
to draw in his outposts on the Hudson and to evacuate 
Newport, (October.) These movements, effected without 
loss, or even collision, were the only ones of any strong 
bearing upon the .issue of the war. 

Jones's Far away, upon the coasts of Great Britain itself, 

cruises. ^}^g ^^^j, ^y^^ ^^^^ extended. Following in the track 
of the brave Wickes, John Paul Jones sailed in the Ranger 
from France to the coast of England and Scotland, entering 
Whitehaven, where he took the fortifications and fired the 
shipping of the fort. This was in the spring of 1778. In 
the spring of the following year, Jones being then in 
France, it was proposed that he should take the naval com- 



WAR, CONTINUED. 229 

mand of an expedition in which Lafoyette was to be the 
general-in-chief, the object being nothing less than the inva- 
sion of EngUmd. This project failing, Jones got to sea in 
summer, with a squadron of seven sail, fi'om a French port. 
Although much embarrassed by the insubordinate conduct 
of one of his chief officers, Jones pursued his cruise with 
great success along the Scotch coast. Thence descending 
on the eastern side of England, he encountered a fleet of 
merchantmen, under convoy of two vessels of vrar. The 
two were at once engaged — the larger, the Serapis, by 
Jones's Bonhomme Richard, and the smaller, the Countess 
of Scarborough, by the Pallas, under Captain Cottineau. 
It was a fearful and a remarkable action. Jones was ex- 
posed not only to the fire of his antagonist, but to that of one 
of his own vessels, from the treachery or the incompetency 
of its commander ; and so completely battered was his ship, 
the Bonhomme Richard, that it went down sixteen hours 
after the surrender of the Serapis. The other British ves- 
sel also surrendered, (September 23, 1779.) The brave 
victor made his way safely to Holland.* 
Spain in The war was gathering fresh combatants. Spain, 
the war. after Vainly offering her mediation between Great 
Britain and France, entered into the lists on the side of the 
latter power, (June, 1779.) There was no thought of the 
United States in the transaction. John Jay, hastily ap- 
pointed minister to Spain, (September,) could not obtain a 
recognition of American independence. But the United 
States hailed the entrance of a new nation into the arena. 
It was so much against their enemy, however httle it was 
for themselves. 

The beginning of 1780 belield large detachments from 
the British at New York, under Clinton, the commander-in- 

* He did not. return to Americr. till the beginning of 1781. 

20 



230 PART III. 1763-1797. 

chief himself, on their way soutliward. Charleston, 

Loss of ' •' ' 

South twice already assailed in vain, wjis the first object. 
The siege began with five thousand Bi'itish against 
fifteen hundred Am(!ricans, (April 11;) the numbers after- 
wards increasing to eii^ht thousand on the I>i'iti.-h side and 
three thousand on the American. The naval forces of the 
attack and the defence were still more unc^qual. Lincoln, 
yet in command of the southern army, made a brave resist- 
ance, but was of course overpowered. The loss of Ciiarles- 
ton (May 12) was followed by the loss of the state, or the 
greater part of it. Three expeditions, the chief under Lord 
Cornwallis, penetrated into the interior without meeting any 
repulse. So complete was the prostratioji of South Caro- 
lina, that Clinton returned to New York, leaving CornAvaliis 
to retain and to extend the conquest which had been made, 
(June.) 

All was not yet lost. The partisans of South 

Failure to j l 

recover Carolina, like those of Georgia, held out in the 
upper country, whence they made frequent descents 
upon the British posts. Tlie names of Thomas Sumter 
and Francis Marion recall many a chivalrous enterprise. 
Continental troops and militia were marching from the north 
under De Kalb, the companion of Lafayette in his voyage, 
and under Gates, who assumed the command in North Car- 
olina, (July.) Thence entering South Carolina in the 
hope of recovering it from its conquerors. Gates encountered 
Cornwallis near Camden, and, although much superior in 
numbers, was routed, — the militia of North Carolina and 
Virginia leaving the few continental troops to bear the 
brunt of the battle in vain. The brave De Kalb fell a sac- 
rifice upon the field. (August 1 6.) Two days afterwards, 
Sumter was surprised by the British cavalry under Lieu- 
tenant Colonel Tarleton, and his party scattered. Marion 
was at the same time driven into North Carolina. 



WAR, CONTINUED. 231 

.^ , It seemed as if the south were given up to the 

Abandon- ^ ^ ^ 

mentof foe. So little exei'tion to defend it was made 
■ in the other portions of the country, that a rumor 
gained ground of an intention to abandon South Caro- 
lina and Georgia altogether. The French minister, De 
La Luzerne, wrote homy of still greater sacrifices in con- 
templation. He mentions the possibility of a proposal from 
the British that the other states should be acknowledged to 
be independent if the Carolinas, both North and South, and 
Georgia, were surrendered. Such a proposition was never 
made ; * but it must have been thought of and talked about. 
Such, too, were the sectional divisions in and out of Con- 
gress, that there were some to whom the abandonment of 
the south wore no look of horror or of wrong. 
Its de- Fortunately there were others, and a far greater 

fence. number, who never hesitated at the necessity of de- 
fending their southern brothers. Washington, still on the 
watch about New York, turned anxious glances to the oper- 
ations at the south. " The affairs of the Southern States,'* 
he wrote to the president of Congress, *^ seem to be so ex- 
ceedingly disordered, and their resources so much exhausted, 
that whatever may be undertaken there must chiefly depend 
on the means carried from hence. If these fail, we shall be 
condemned to a disgraceful and fatal inactivity." When 
Gates proved incompetent to the work, Washington ap- 
pointed his best officer. Major General Greene, to save the 
invaded states and to keep the country whole, (October.) 
Darkness ^^ ^^^^ ^ dark time, even in the north. Washing- 
in the ton had looked forward, at the opening of the year, 

north. . • 1 1 1 r* 1 • 1 

to an active campaign ; but the hopes ot his heart 
died out one by one. Lafayette, returning from a year's 
absence in France, where he had been unwearied in uphold- 
ing the interests of America, announced the coming of an 
armament, both land and naval, from his country. This 



232 PART III. 1763-1797. 

arrived at Newport, (July,) and there it remained dur- 
ing the rest of the year, blockaded by a British fleet. 
Washington's plans of an attack with the French upon New 
York fell through, to his great disappointment. What the 
French thought of the state of things may be gathered from 
a despatch of their commander, the Count de Rochambeau, 
to the government. " Upon our arrival here," he writes, 
" the country was in consternation. The paper money had 
fallen to sixty for one. ... I landed with my staff 
without troops; nobody a})peared in the streets; those at 
the windows looked sad and depressed. . . . >)end us 
troops, ships, and money, but do not depend upon this peo- 
ple or upon their means." * It was soon afterwards that 
Washington wrote, " If either the temper or the resources 
of the country will not admit of an alteration, we may ex- 
pect soon to be reduced to the humiliating condition of 
seeing the cause of America in America upheld by foreign 
arms." "But I give it as my opinion," he wrote again, 
"that a foreign loan is indispensably necessary to the con- 
tinuance of the war." The autumn came, and Benedict 
Arnold, one of the officers upon whom the military fprtunes 
of the nation had most depended, all but succeeded in 
betraying West Point to the enemy, (September.) He 
escaped, leaving Major Andre, with whom he had been 
treating, to die the death of a spy. A descent, partly of 
British, partly of loyalist Americans, and partly of Indians, 
surprised tlie fortresses and devastated the fields of Northern 
New York, (October.) Disaster was succeeding disaster, 
when Congress, listening to the exhortations of the com- 
mander-in-chief, again addressed itself to the organization 
of an army. It proposed enlistments of soldiers to continue 



* Mr, Sparks's translation, in Washington's Writings, vol. vii. pp. 
504-506: 



WAR, CONTINUED. 233 

during the war, and half pay of officers to continue after- 
wards and for life ; but it was only a proposal. More effec- 
tive were the exertions of the women of Pennsylvania, 
under the guidance of Mrs. Reed, the wife of the Pennsyl- 
vanian president, and those of New Jersey, led by Mrs. 
Dickinson, who raised generous subscriptions * to meet the 
necessities of the American army. " The spirit that ani- 
mated the members of your association," wrote Washington 
to the ladies of Philadelphia on the death of Mrs. Reed, 
" entitles them to an equal place with any who have pre- 
ceded them in the walk of female patriotism. It embellishes 
the American character with a new trait." 

Cornwallis, conqueror of South Carolina, pre- 

Ligbt iu -»-r 1 /^ T IT" 

the pared to march upon North Carolma. io secure 

^''"^^* the upper country, he detached a trusted officer, 
Major Ferguson, with a small band of regular troops and 
loyalists, in addition to whom large accessions were soon 
obtained from the tory part of the population. These 
recruits, like all of the same stamp, Avere full of hatred 
towards their countrymen on the American side ; and fierce 
were the ravages of the party as Ferguson marched on. 
Aroused by the agony of the country, a considerable num- 
ber of volunteers gathered, under various oificers — Colonel 
Campbell, of Virginia, Colonels Cleaveland, Sevier, and 
Shelby, of North Carolina, and others. Nine hundred chosen 
men hastened to overtake the enemy, whom they found en- 
camped in security on King's Mountain, near the frontier of 
South Carolina. The Americans never fought more resolute- 
ly. Ferguson was killed, and his surviving men surrendered 
at discretion, (October 7.) The march of Cornwallis was 
instantly checked ; instead of advancing, he fell back. Nay, 

* In paper money, upwards of $300,000 ; but in specie from $5000 to 
$7000. 

20* 



234 PART III. 1763-1797. 

more ; a force which had been sent from New York to estab- 
lish itself in Virginia was summoned by Cornwallis to his aid. 
The year had been marked by important move- 

Ilolland •' r ^ ^ Vi • 

in the ments in Europe. The Empress Catharine of Rus- 
^^* sia put forth a declaration of independence, as it 
may be styled, ia behalf of the neutral states, by proclaim- 
ing: their rio-ht to carry on their commerce in time of war 
exactly as in time of peace, provided they conveyed no con- 
traband articles. This doctrine was wholly at variance 
with the rights of search and of blockade, as asserted by 
England in relation to neutral nations. But* it prevailed; 
and a league, by the name of the Armed Neutrality, soon 
comprehended nearly the whole of Europe. Little, how- 
ever, was effected by it ; the Empress of Russia herself 
called it her Armed Nullity. Yet the circle of hostility 
against England went on widening. On the accession of 
Holland to the Armed Neutrality, Great Britain, having 
just before captured a minister to the Dutch from the United 
States, — Henry Laurens, of South Carolina, — declared war 
at the close of 1780. But Holland no more became an 
ally of the United States than Spain had done. 
Final '^\\^ " Articlcs of Confederation and Perpetual 

adoption Union between the States," adopted by Congress 
Confed- towards the end of 1777, were still in abeyance. 
eration, 'Y\\Q, statcs to wliom they were sent for approval had 
found many objections to the plan of union. Some of the 
larger states disliked the right of the smaller states to an 
equal vote with themselves in Congress. The smaller op- 
posed the claims of the larger to the unoccupied lands of the 
country, alleging that what was won by conimon exertion 
should be turned to common advantage. One state — New 
Jersey — had the wisdom to object that Congress, or the gen- 
eral government, was not endowed with sufficient power 
especially on the matter of regulating the trade of the coun 



WAR, CONTINUED 235 

try. These and other difficulties were but slowly sur- 
mounted. Wlien ail the rest had been removed, the ques' 
tion of the unoccupied lands was still a point upon which 
the articles hung motionless. The magnanimity with which 
this last obstacle was removed is a bright episode in the 
history of the times. New Jersey was the tirst of the 
smaller states to come into the Confederacy, relying upon 
the justice of her more powerful sisters, (November 20, 
1778.) First of the landed states to cede her claims for 
the general welfare was New York, (February 19, 1780.) 
Her generosity, and the confidence of such states as New 
Jersey, induced the hitherto reluctant Maryland to waive 
her objections and sign the Articles. The thirteen were 
then complete, (March 1, 1781.) 

Its inef- Congratulations were general, and well founded, 
ficiency. g^ f.jj. ^^ jj^gy related to the closer union of the 
states. But nothing had been gained on the score of a na- 
tional government. On the contrary, something had been 
lost ; the powers of Congress being rather diminished than 
increased under the Articles of Confederation. Before their 
adoption, a majority of states decided a question ; now, nine 
out of the thirteen must be united to carry any measure. 
The half pay for life, for instance, that had been voted to 
the officers of the army, was reconsidered and refused by 
the Congress of the Confederation, for want of nine states to 
vote for its fulfilment. All this had been foreboded and 
lamented. " A nominal head, which at present is but an- 
other name for Congress, will no longer do,'' — thus "vvrote 
"Washington. His aide-de-camp, Hamilton, wrote that Con- 
gress must be clothed with proper authority, " by resuming 
and exercising the discretionary powers originally vested 
in them," or " by calling immediately a convention of all 
the states, with full authority to conclude finally upon a 
general confederation," (1780.) Just before the adoption 



236 PART III. 1763-1797. 

of the Articles, tlie legislature of New York presented a 
formal memorial to Congress, saying, " AVe shall not pre- 
sume to give our opinion on the question whether Congress 
has adequate powers or not. But we will without hesita- 
tion declare that, if they have not, they ought to have them, 
and that we stand ready on our part to confer them." If 
all these things could be said before the ratification of the 
Confederation, they could of course be repeated with even 
greater truth afterwards. A specimen of the inefficiency 
of the government occurs in relation to a proposal of import 
duties to be laid by Congress. Rhode Island refused to 
grant the necessary power to the government, and Virginia, 
after granting it, retracted it, (December, 1782.) 

In the mean time events were hasteninoj to a crisis 

Defence *-' 

of the in the field. General Greene, taking command of 
aio.inas. ^j^^ southcm army, with several American officers 
and the Pole Kosciuszko in his train, determined to save 
the Carolinas. He was confirmed in his purpose by his 
brigadier. General Morgan, who, distinguished in various 
actions, won a decisive victory over Tarleton at the Cow- 
pens, in South Carolina, (January 17.) Two months later, 
Greene and Morgan having retreated in the interval, the 
main bodies of the 'armies, British and American, met at 
Guilford, in North Carolina, (March 15.) Both retiretl 
from the field ; the Americans first, but the British with the 
greater loss. Cornwallis withdrew towards Wilmington, 
pursued by Greene, who j)resently dashed into South Caro- 
lina. There he was opposed by Lord Rawdon, who at once 
defeated him in an engagement at Hobkirk's Hill, near 
Camden, (April 25.) This was a cruel blow to Greene's 
hopes of surprising South Carolina. " This distressed 
country," he wrote, " cannot struggle much longer without 
more effectual support." But it was not in Greene's nature 
to despair. Wliile he advanced against the stronghold of 



WAR, CONTINUED. 237 

Ninety-Six, in South Carolina, lie detaelied a body of troops 
under Lieutenant Colonel Lee to join a band of Carolinians 
and Georgians who were besieging Augusta. The result 
was the surrender of that town, (June 5.) But the fort at 
Ninety-Six held out against repeated assaults, and Greene 
was obliged to retire before the superior force which Raw- 
don was leading to raise the siege, (June 19.) For a time, 
the war subsided ; then Greene reappeared, and fought the 
action of Eutaw Springs. He lost the field of battle, (Sep- 
tember 8 ;) but the British, under Colonel Stuart, were so 
much weakened as to give way, and retreat precipitately 
towards Charleston. Thus from defeat to defeat, without 
the intermission of a single victory, in the common sense, 
Greene had now marched, now retreated, in such a brave 
and brilliant way, as to force the enemy back upon the sea- 
board. The successes of the militia and of the partisan 
corps had been equally effective. All the upper country, 
not only of the Carolinas, but of Georgia, was once more 
in the American possession. 
„, At the time when thino^s were darkest at the 

The cen- o 

trai states soutli, greater perils arose at the centre of the 
° ^' country. Virginia was invaded in the first days 
of 1781 by a formidable force, chiefly of loyalists under the 
traitor Arnold. He took Richmond, but only to leave it 
and retire to Portsmouth, where he bade defiance both to 
the American militia and the French vessels from Newport, 
(January.) Soon after, two thousand British troops were 
sent from New York, under General Phillips, with direc- 
tions to march up the Chesapeake against Maryland and 
Pennsylvania, (March.) This plan embraced the twofold 
idea of cutting off the Carolinas from all assistance, and 
of laying the central states equally prostrate. At about 
the same time, Cornwallis, bafiled by Greene in North 
Carolina, set out to join the forces assembled in Vii'ginia. 



238 PART III. 1763-1797. 

Tliey, meanwhile, had penetrated the interior, swept the 
plantations and the towns, and taken Petersburg, (April.) 
The arrival of Cornwallis completed the array of the 
enemy, (May.) The very heart of the country was in 
danger. 

" Our affairs," wrote "Washington before the con- 
centration of the enemy in Virginia, " are brought 
to an aw^ul crisis." " "V\Tiy need I run into details," he 
wrote again, " when it may be declared in a word, that we 
are at the end .of our tether, and that now or never our 
deliverance must come ? " " But we must not despair," he 
urged, as dangers accumulated ; " the game is yet in our 
own hands ; to play it well is all we have to do, and I trust 
the experience of error will enable us to act better in 
future. A cloud may yet pass over us, individuals may be 
ruined, and the country at large, or particular states, under- 
go temporary distress ; but certain I am that it is in our 
power to bring the war to a happy conclusion." 
. . The nation was far from beino^ up to the emer- 

prepara- gcucy. A Spirit of wcariuess and selfishness was 
prevailing among the people. The army, ill disci- 
plined and ill paid, was exceedingly restless. Troops of 
the Pennsylvania and New Jersey lines had broken out 
into actual revolt at the beginning of the year. The gov- 
ernment was still ineffective, the Confederation feeble. Con- 
gress inert, not to say broken down. When one reads that 
this body stood ready to give up the Mississippi to Spain, 
nay, to waive the express acknowledgment of American 
independence as an indispensable preliminary to negotia- 
tions with Great Britain, — when one reads these things, he 
may well wonder that there were any preparations to meet 
the exigencies of the times. The German Baron de Steu- 
ben, collecting troops in Virginia at the time of the inva- 
sion, was afterwards joined by Lafayette^ whose troops had 



WAR, CONTINUED. 239 

been clad on their march at his expense. By sea, the 
French fleet was engaged in defending the coasts against 
the invader. It seemed as if the stranger were the only- 
defender of Virginia and of America. But on the south- 
ern border was Greene, with his troops and his partisan 
allies. At the north was "Washington, planning, acting, 
summoning troops from the states, and the French from- 
Newport, to aid him in an attack upon New York, as the 
stronghold of the foe, until, convinced of the impossibility 
of securing the force required for such an enterprise, he 
resolved upon taking the command in Virginia, (August 
14.) Thither he at once directed the greater part of his 
scanty troops, as well as of the French. The allied army 
was to be strengthened by the French fleet, and not merely 
by that of Newport, but by another and a larger fleet from 
the West Indies. 

The British under Cornwallis were now within 

Defeat 

of Corn- fortified lines at Yorktown and Gloucester, (August 
■wa IS. j_22.) There they had retired under orders from 
the commander-in-chief at New York, who thought both 
that post and the Virginian conquests in danger from the 
increasing activity of the Americans, and especially the 
French. Little had been done in the field by Cornwallis. 
He had been most gallantly watched, and even pursued 
by Lafayette, whose praises for skill, as well as heroism, 
rang far and wide. Washington and the French General 
Rochambeau joined Lafayette at Williamsburg, (Septem- 
ber 14.) A great fleet under Count de Grasse was already 
in the Chesapeake. As soon as the land forces arrived, 
the siege of Yorktown was begun, (September 28.) The 
result was certain. Washington had contrived to leave Sir 
Henry Clinton impressed with the idea that New York was 
still the main object. Sir Henry, therefore, thought of no 
reenforcements for Cornwallis, until they were too late, 



240 PART III. 1763-1797. 

until, indeed, they were out of the question in consequence 
of the naval superiority of the French. In fact, an expe- 
dition to lay waste the eastern part of Connecticut was 
occupying Clinton's mind. He placed the loyalists and the 
Hessians despatched for the purpose under the traitor Ar- 
nold, who succeeded in destroying New London, (Septem- 
ber.) Thus there were but seven thousand five hundred 
British at Yorktown to resist nine thousand Americans and 
seven thousand French, besides the numerous fleet. In 
less than three weeks, Cornwallis asked for terms, (October 
17,) and two days afterwards surrendered. 

The blow was decisive. The United States were 
Effect. transported. Government, army, people were for 
once united, for once elevated to the altitude of those noble 
spirits, who, like Washington, had sustained the nation 
until the moment of victory. '• The play is over," wrote 
Lafayette, " and the fifth act is just finished." " O God ! " 
exclaimed the English prime minister, on hearing of the 
event. " It is all over — all over ! " 

It was Washington's earnest desire to avail of 

Prospects. , i /-ni i -r-i 

the French fleet in an attack on Charleston. De 
Grasse refused. Then Washington urged him to transport 
troops to Wilmington. But De Grasse alleged his engage- 
ments in the West Indies, and sailed thither. The French 
under Rochambeau went into winter quarters at Williams- 
burg, while the Americans marched, a part to re enforce the 
southern army, and a part to the various posts in the north. 
Prospects were uncertain. It was evident that the war 
was approaching its close, but none could tell how nearly. 
Washington implored his countrymen to be on the alert. 
Again and again he rebuked the inaction into which they 
were falling, as if their work was done. The British still 
held their post by the Penobscot. They were still strong 
at New York. Wilmington was evacuated by them ; but 



WAR, CONTINUED. 241 

Charleston, the chief town of the south, and Savannah, 
remained in their hands. Lafayette wrote from France, 
whither he went at the close of the year, that " the evacu- 
ation of New York and Charleston are as far from British 
intentions as the evacuation of London." 

It turned out differently. A vote of Parliament 

Evacuar •' 

tion of that the king be requested to bring the war to a 
close, (February 27, 1782,) led to a change of 
ministry. Determining to recognize the independence of 
the United States, and to concentrate hostilities against the 
European powers, the new ministry sent out Sir Guy 
Carleton as commander-in-chief, with instructions to evacu- 
ate New York, Charleston, and Savannah ; in a word, the 
entire seaboard. Savannah was evacuated in the summer, 
(July 11,) Charleston in the early winter, (December 14.) 
It was the result of past campaigns, not of any present one. 
The Americans were without armies, w^ithout supplies, at 
least without such as were indispensable for any active 
operations. When the French under Rochambeau reached 
the American camp on the Hudson in the autumn, they 
passed between two lines of troops clothed and armed by 
subsidies from France. It was a touching tribute of grati- 
tude, and an equally touching confession of weakness. All 
but a single corps of the French embarked at the close of 
the year. The remainder followed in the ensuing spring. 
Peace was then decided upon. It had been 

The Eu- 
ropean brought about by other operations besides those 

combat- which havc been described. The contest in Amer- 

ants. 

ica, indeed, w^as but an episode in the extended 
warfare of the period. Upon the sea, the fleets of Britain 
hardly encountered an American man-of-war. The oppos- 
ing squadrons were those of France and Spain and Hol- 
land. By land, the French opposed the British in the 
East Indies, upon the coast of Africa, and in the West 
21 



242 PART III. 1763-1797. 

Indies. They also aided the Spaniards to conquer Minor- 
ca, in the Mediterranean, and to assail, but in vain, the 
great stronghold of Gibraltar. The Spanish forces were 
also active in the Floridas. Holland, alone of the Euro- 
pean combatants, made no stand against Great Britain. In 
the Indies, both East and West, and in South American 
Guiana, the Dutch were immense losers. What was gained 
from them, however, did not compensate for what was lost 
to others by the British. The preliminaries of peace, at 
first with America, (November 30,) and afterwards with 
the European powers, (January 20, 1783,) were signed to 
the general contentment of Great Britain, of Europe, and 
of America. 

Hostilities soon ceased. In America, Sir Guy 

Cessation * ' •' 

of hostiii- Carleton proclaimed their cessation on the part of 
the British, (April 8.) Washington, with the con- 
sent of Congress, made proclamation to the same effect. 
By a singular coincidence, the day on which hostilities were 
stayed was the anniversary of that on which they were 
begun at Lexington, eight years before, (April 19.) 

Measures, already proposed by the British com- 
of pris- mander, were at once taken on both sides for the 
release of prisoners. The treatment and the ex- 
change of these unfortunate men had given rise to great 
difficulties during the war. Even where actual cruelty did 
not exist, etiquette and policy were too strong for humanity. 
The horrors of the British jails and prison ships Avere 
bywords, and when their unhappy victims were offered in 
exchange for the better treated prisoners of the other side, 
tlie Americans hesitated to receive them. The troops that 
surrendered at Saratoga, on condition of a free pasi-age to 
Great Britain, were detained, in consequence of various 
objections, to be freed only by desertions and slow ex- 
changes after the lapse of years. In short, tlie prisoners 



I 



WAR, CONTINUED. 243 

of both armies seem to have been regarded in the light of 
troublesome burdens, alike by those who had captured 
them and those from whom they were captured. Individual 
benevolence alone lights up the gloomy scene. At the 
close of the war, we find Cougress voting its thanks, on the 
the recommendation of Washington, to Reuben Harvey, a 
merchant of Cork, and on that of Franklin, to Thomas 
Wren, a minister of Portsmouth, for their humane succors 
to American prisoners. 

Treaties Negotiations for peace met with many interrup- 
of peace, tions. So far as the United States were concerned, 
the questions of boundary, of the St. Lawrence and New- 
foundland fisheries, of indemnity to British creditors, as 
well as to American loyalists, were ail knotty points ; the 
more so, that the four negotiators — Franklin, John Jay, 
John Adams, and Henry Laurens — were by no means 
agreed upon the principles by which to decide them. 
Some of the envoys, moreover, were possessed of the 
idea that France was disposed to betray her American 
aUies ; and so strong was this feeling that the consent of 
the French government, the point which had been agreed 
upon as the essential condition of making peace, was not 
even asked before the signature of the preliminaries al- 
ready mentioned. It was before tlie preliminaries were 
signed that all these embarrassments appeared ; and they 
continued afterwards. At length, however, definitive treaties 
were siorned at Paris and at Versailles between Great 
Britain and her foes, (September 3.) * America obtained 
her independence, with all the accompanying privileges 
and possessions which she desired. She agreed, however, 
against her will, to make her debts good, and to recommend 
the loyalists, whose property had been confiscated, to the 
favor of the state governments. Spain recovered the Flor- 

* The treaty with Holland was not concluded until the following spring. 



244 PART III. 1763-1797. 

idas. The other terms of the treaties — the cessions on one 
side and on the other — do not belong to our history. The 
treaty between Great Britain and the United States was 
formally confirmed by Congress at the beginning of the 
following year, (January 14, 1784.) 

After lono; delays, the British withdrew from 

Evacua- o •' ' 

tiun of their post on the Penobscot. New York was evac- 
'uated, (November 25, 1783,) and ten days later, 
the remaining forces embarked from Staten Island and 
Long Island, (December 4-6.) A few western posts 
excepted, the territory of the United States was free. 

The disposal of the American army had loner 

Troubles •/ o 

in the been a serious question. A year before, the army 
American j^^^j addressed Congress on the subject of the pay, 

army. ® ** r ./ ? 

then months, and even years, in arrears, (Decem- 
ber, 1782.) Congress was powerless. The army was 
incensed. When, therefore, anonymous addresses to the 
officers were issued from the camp at Newburg, proposing 
the alternative of redress or of desertion,* the worst con- 
sequences appeared inevitable. The more so, that the 
excitement was greatest amongst the Letter class of soU 
diers, the " worthy and faithful men," as their commande^ 
described them, " who, from their early engaging in the 
war at moderate bounties, and from their patient continu- 
ance under innumerable distresses, have not only deserved 
well of their country, but have obtained an honorable dis- 
tinction over those who, with shorter times, have gained 
large pecuniary rewards." "Washington, and Washington 
alone, was equal to the crisis. He had repelled with unut- 
terable disdain the offer of a crown from certain individuals 
in the army a year before, (May, 1782.) He now rebuked 
the spirit of tlie Newburg addresses, and by liis majestic 

* "If peace [comes], that nothing: shall separate you from your arms 
but death ; if war, that . . you will retire to some unsettled country." 



WAR, CONTINUED. 245 

integrity, quelled the rising passions of those around him. 
But he entered with all the greater fervor into the just 
claims of the army. His refusal at the outset of the war, 
renewed at the close,* to receive any compensation for his 
services to tlie country, placed him in precisely the position 
from which he could now appeal in behalf of his otficers 
and soldiers to Congress and the uation. Ilis voice Avas 
heard. The army obtained a promise of its pa}^, including 
the commutation to a fixed sum of the half pay for life 
formerly promised to the officers at the expiration of the 
war, (March, 1783.) All was not yet secure. But three 
months later, and a body of Pennsylvanian troops marched 
upon Congress itself in Philadelphia. Washington de- 
nounced the act with scorn. " These Pennsylvania 
levies," he says, " who have now mutinied, are recruits 
and soldiers of a day, who have not borne the heat and 
burden of the war." He at once sent a force to reduce 
and to chastise them, (June.) 

Disband- " It is high time for a peace," Washington had 
iiig- written some months previously. The army was 
slowly disbanded, a small number only being left when the 
formal proclamation of dissolution was made, (November 
3.) A few troops were still retained in arms. Of these, 
and of his faithful officers, the commander-in-chief took his 
leave at New York, (December 4.) Thence he repaired 
to Annapolis, where Congress was in session, and there 
resigned the commission which he had held, unstained and 
glorious, for eight years and a half, (December 23.) 

It seems as if he left no one behind him. The 

GovGrii" • 

ment of town and the state, each had its authorities ; but 

the na- ^y^Q natiou was without a government, at least with 

nothing more than the name of one. Yet the 

* Just after resigning his commission, he declined the overtures of 
Pennsylvania to propose a national remuneration for his sacrifices, 

21 * 



246 PART III. 1763-1797. 

need of a directing and a sustaining power had never been 
greater or clearer. If the war itself was over, its conse- 
quences, its burdens, its debts, its wasting influences, were 

but begun. 

No one saw this more plainly, no one felt it more 
ton's deeply, than the retiring commander-in-chief. At 
couuseis. ^^^ ^.^^ j^^^ j^^ ^^^^^ absorbed in his mihtary duties. 

In his relations to Congress, to the states, even to the citi- 
zens, as well as in those to foreigners, whether allies or 
enemies, he had been almost as much the civil as the mili- 
tary head of the country. The arm that had led the nation 
through the field was now lifted to point out the paths that 
opened beyond. " According to the system of policy the 
states shall adopt at this moment," — thus Washington wrote 
to the governors of the states, on disbanding the army, — 
" they will stand or fall ; and by their confirmation or lapse, 
it is yet to be decided whether the revolution must ultimate- 
ly be considered as a blessing or a curse ; a blessing or a 
curse, not to the present age alone, for with our fate will 
the destiny of unborn millions be involved." " There are 
four things," he continued, " which I humbly conceive are 
essential to the well being, I may even venture to say, to 
the existence, of the United States as an independent power. 

" First. An mdissoluble union of the states under one 
federal head; 

" Second. A sacred regard to public justice. 

" Third. The adoption of a proper peace establishment. 
And 

" Fourth. The prevalence of that pacific and friendly 
disposition among the people of the United States which 
Avill induce them to forget their local prejudices and poli- 
cies ; to make those mutual concessions which are requisite 
to the general prosperity ; and in some instances, to sacri- 
fice their individual advantages to the interest of the 
community." 



WAR, CONTINUED. 247 

^n(j " I now make it my earnest prayer," concluded 

prayers, ^i^q Christian hero, *•' that God would have you, and 
the state over which you preside, in His holy protection ; 
that He would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate 
a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, to 
entertain a brotherly affection and love ibr one another, for 
their fellow-citizens of the United States at large, and par- 
ticularly for their brethren who have served them in the 
field ; and finally, that He would most graciously be pleased 
to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean 
ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of 
mind, which were the characteristics of the divine Author 
of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of 
whose example in these things we can never hope to be a 
happy nation." 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Constitution. 
^ . One loves to dwell upon the sympathy from 

Foreign ^ j c j 

sympa- abroad for the infant nation. What had been 
^^' repressed while the states were still claimed as the 
colonies of Great Britain broke forth after the claim was 
set aside. From all parts of Europe, from all parts of 
Great Britain itself, there came congratulations and ap- 
plauses. Even sovereigns did homage to the republic. 
The King of France continued its friend. The King of 
Spain, recognizing its national existence, sent gifts and 
comjDliments to its great leader, Washington. 
^ , No proof of reorard was dearer to Washington or 

Lafay- i o o ^ 

ette's to the nation than one which came from the friend 
^'^'*' and the champion of many years, the devoted 
Lafayette. He had spent two years and a half in gener- 
ous exertions at home, Avhen he crossed the seas to join in 
the American rejoicings at the definite establishment of 
independence. The whole people welcomed him. Divided 
on many points, they were united in the grateful affection 
which he had inspired. Soldiers and citizens, the wild 
borderers and the plodding townspeople, the inhabitants of 
every section, thronged together with a common desire of 
doing honor to Lafayette. He was feasted in all the prin- 
cipal places. Congress gave him a public reception. Wash- 
ington crowned him with love and parental gratitude at 
Mount Vernon. After a six months' tour, he left America 

(248) 



THE CONSTITUTION. 249 

to shai*e in the struggles of his native country, (August, 
1784 — January, 1785.) 

Wants of ^i^ left the country of his adoption in the midst 
America, ^f struggles of its owu. It was contending against 
manifold wants, some common to any youthful nation, otliers 
peculiar to itself, to a nation so unique in its history, iivA 
especially in the history of the last twenty years. It 
is to these wants, and to the manner in vrliich they were 
supplied, that we are to turn. 

o r^an- Chief of them all, the one, indeed, in which they 

ization, -yyj]} ]jQ found to liavc been comprehended, like 
segments in a circle, was organization. The sharp points, 
the intersecting lines, the clashing forms of different dis- 
tricts and of different institutions, needed to be reduced to 
order within the curve, at once enfolding and harmonizing, 
of a national system. There was hardly a political princi- 
ple upon which the entire country agreed. There was not 
one political power by which it was governed. Interests 
were opposed to interests, classes to classes; nay, men to 
men. When the officers of the army, for instance, formed 
into a society, under the name of the Cincinnati, for the 
purpose of keeping up their relations with one another, and 
more particularly of succoring those who might fall into 
distress, a general uproar was raised, because the member- 
ship of the society was to be hereditary, from father to son, 
or from kinsman to kinsman. It was found necessary to 
strike out this provision, at the first general meeting of the 
Cincinnati, (1784.) Even then, though there remained 
nothing but a charitable association, it was inveighed 
against as a caste, as an aristocracy ; as any thing, in shorty 
save what it really was. It is easy to say tliat all this is a 
sign of republicanism, of a devoted anxiety to preserve the 
institutions for which loss and sufferings had been endured. 
But it is a clearer sign of the suspicions and the collisions 



250 PART ni. 1763-1797. 

which were rending the nation asunder. There was but a 
single remedy. The people were to be united ; the country 
was to be made one. 

The states were absorbed in their own troubles. 
states. The debts of the Confederation lay heavy upon 
Internal tj^em, in addition to those contracted by themselves. 

troubles . . . • i i i i i 

Their citizens were impoverished, here and tnere 
maddened by the calamities and the burdens, private and 
public, which they were obliged to bear together. At 
Exeter, the assembly of New Hampshire was assailed by 
two hundred men with weapons, demanding an emission of 
paper money. All day, the insurgents held possession of 
the legislative chamber ; but in the early evening, they 
were dispersed by a rumor that Exeter was taking up 
arms against them, (1786.) The same year, the courts of 
Massachusetts were prevented from holding their usual 
sessions by bodies of armed men, whose main object it was 
to prevent any collection of debts or taxes. So general 
was the sympathy with the movement, not only in Massa- 
chusetts, but in the adjoining states, that twelve or fifteen 
thousand were supposed to be ready to do the same. 
Nearly two thousand were in arms at the beginning of 
the following year, (1787.) The horror excited in the 
rest of the country was intense. Congress ordered troops 
to be raised, but as it had no power to interfere with the 
Btates, the pretext of Indian hostilities was set up. JMassa- 
chusetts was fortunate in having James Bowdoin for a 
governor. Under his influence chiefly, — for the legislature 
was partly paralyzed and partly infected, — the danger 
was met. One or two thousand militia, under the command 
of Genei'al Lincoln, marched against the insurgents, at the 
head of whom was Daniel Shays, a captain in the continen- 
tal army. Already driven back from Springfield, where 
they had attacked the arsenal,- the insurgents retreated ta 



THE CO:\^iSTlTUTION. 251 

Petersliam, and were there put to rout. Of all the prison- 
ers, fourteen alone were tried and condemned, not one bein"' 
executed. The insurrection had lasted about six months, 
(August, 1786— February, 1787.) 

Disraem- Nor Were such insurrections the only ones of the 
bLrments. time. A body of settlers in Wyoming, principally 
emigrants from New England, held their land by grants 
from Connecticut, long the claimant of the territory. AVhen 
Connecticut gave way to Pennsylvania, and the latter state 
insisted upon the necessity of new titles to the settlements 
of Wyoming, the settlers armed themselves, and threatened 
to set up a state of their own, (1782-87.) What was 
threatened there was actually executed elsewhere. The 
western counties of North Carolina, excited by being ceded 
to the United States, organized an independent government, 
as the state of Franklin or Frankland, (1784.) But the 
people were divided, and the governor, Colonel Sevier, of 
King's Mountain fame, was ultimately compelled to fly by the 
opponents of an independent organization, (1788.) Mean- 
while old projects of independence had been revived in the 
Kentucky counties of Virginia. Petitions and resolutions 
led to acts of the Virginia legislature consenting to the 
independence of Kentucky on certain conditions, (1785- 
86.) Kentucky soon after petitioned Congress for admis- 
sion to the Union, but without immediate effect, (1787-88.) 
All these instances of dismemberment, proposed or accom- 
phshed, relate to frontier settlements, where independence 
was suggested as much by the position as by the character 
of the settlers. But the older districts were stirred in the 
same way. Maine again and ag^ain strove to be detached 
from Massachusetts, (1786.) 

Case of The case of Vermont was one apart. It came 
Vermont, ^^p n(..jr the begiiming of the war, wlien the inhab- 
itants of that district, then known as the New Hampshire 



252 PART III. 1763-1797. 

grants, declared it the State of Vermont, (January, 1777,) 
and asked admission to the Union, (July.) The request 
was denied, on account of the claims of New York to the 
territory. A number of towns in the valley of the Con- 
necticut, and partly within the limits of New Hampshire, 
afterwards formed themselves into the State of New Con- 
necticut, (1779.) This soon fell through, leaving its prede- 
cessor, Vermont, to be enlarged by the New Hampshire 
towns on the eastern banks of the Connecticut, together 
with the New York settlements as far as the Hudson, 
(1781.) Overtures were then made to the British author- 
ities in Canada, with whom the Vermonters might well 
wish to be on good terms, so long as they were excluded 
from the Union. Congress took alarm, as Vermont expect- 
ed, and proposed to grant admission, provided the recent 
annexations from Ncav Hampshire and New York were 
surrendered. This was done ; but Congress still kept Ver- 
mont at a distance, (1782.) A member of the body, James 
Madison, explains the reasons why a promise, so long de- 
layed, was finally violated. The Eastern States, except New 
Hampshire, and the Central States, except New York, 
advocated the entrance of Vermont, while New York and 
the Southern States opposed it, as Mr. Madison relates, 
through " first, an habitual jealousy of a predominance of 
eastern interests ; secondly, the opposition expected from 
Vermont to western claims ; thirdly, the inexpediency of 
admitting so unimportant a state to an equal vote in decid- 
ing a peace, and all the other grand interests of the Union 
now depending ; fourthly, the influence of the example on 
a premature dismemberment of the other sta,tes." So Ver- 
mont remained aloof, contented, one may believe, to be free 
from the troubles of the United States. 

The strife exhibited in the case of Vermont was nothing 
new or temporary. Disputes between state and state arose, 



THE CONSTITUTION. 253 

as we have liad occasion to observe, in the midst 
beuveen^ of war, and peace had not put them to rest. When 
state and ^i^. Madison spcaks of sectional interests, he alludes 

state. -in' 

to the varieties of occupation and of investment 
which distinguished one state from another. Such things 
could not but lead to different systems in different parts of 
the country, the more so, especially in the north and in the 
south, that there were differences of character, and even of 
principle, to enliance the differences of pursuits or of pos- 
sessions. The allusion to the western territory is to a 
subject akeady noticed in our pages. Partially settled at 
the time when the Confederation was completed, the ques- 
tion of the unoccupied lands was still undecided. It united 
the smaller states, as a general rule, against the larger ones, 
by whom the western regions were claimed. Besides these 
great divisions between north and south, and between the 
larger and the smaller states, there were others of more 
limited nature. Boundary questions came up, some to be 
determined, and others to be left undetermined, but none to 
subside immediately. Variances as to the share of the 
national debt, and more particularly as to the method of 
meeting it, endured from year to year. In short, the thir- 
teen states, instead of being intertwined, were set against 
one another on almost every point of importance that arose 
amon2:st them. 
^ , The general government continued in the same fee- 

General ^ " 

govern- blc State that has been repeatedly observed. If there 
was any change, it was that the Confederation and 
its Congress had sunk to a still lower degree of inefficiency. 
There was even less attention to its wants on the part of the 
iBtates ; its requisitions went almost unanswered, their obliga- 
tions almost unregarded. The superintendent of finance, 
Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, by whose personal exertions 
and advances the country had been forced through the last 
22 



264 PART III. 1763-1797. 

years of the war, laid down liis office in despair, after a 
year of peace. His creation of a bank — the Bank of 
North America (1781) — was recommended h}- Congress 
to the state.-, with the request that branches should be 
established ; but in vain. Congress renewed its petition, as 
it may be styled, for power to lay a O.uiy on imports, if 
only for a hmited period, (1783.) After long delay, a 
fresh appeal was made with really piteous representations 
of the national insolvency. New York refused to comply 
upon the terms proposed, and Congress was again humili- 
ated, (1786.) During its eifbrts on this point, Congress 
had roused itself upon another, and a^kcd for authority 
over foreign commerce. Such was the urgency of the 
interests at stake, that Congress went so far as to appoint a 
commission for the purpose of negotiating commercial trea- 
ties with the European powers, (1784.)* But the suppli- 
cations of Congress to the states were once more denied, 
(1784-86.) 

On one point alone was Congress v,orthy to be 

Organi- ^ o ^ 

zatiou called a government. It organized the western 
north- territory, after having prevailed upon the states', 
westter- or most of them, to abandon their pretensions to 
" ^^^' regions so remote from themselves. Virginia hav- 
ing followed the earlier example of New York, a plan was 
brought forward by one of her delegates, Thomas Jefferson, 
for the division and constitution of the western territory. 
The plan, at first, embraced the organization of the entire 
w^estern territory, out of which seventeen states, all free, 
were to be formed. The proposed prohibition of slavery 
was at once voted down ; otherwise the project was adopted, 

* A treaty Avas made with only one of them, (Prussia,) but it contained 
substance enough for a score of old treaties, in prohibiting privateering, 
and sustaining the liberty of neutral commerce in case of war, (ITSo.j 
See the next chapter. 



THE CONSTITUTION. 255 

(April, 1784.) But the cessions of the states not yet cover- 
ing the whole of the region thus apportioned, its organiza- 
tion was postponed until the national title to the lands could 
be made complete, Massachusetts (1785) and Connecticut 
(1786) ceded their claims, the latter state, however, with a 
reservation. Treaties with various tribes disposed in part 
of the Indian titles to the western territories, (1784-86.) * 
All these cessions completing the hold of the nation upon 
the tract north-west of the Ohio,t that country was definite- 
ly organized as the North-west Territory, by an ordinance 
of Congress, (July 13, 1787 ) This intrusted the govern- 
ment of the territory partly to officers appointed by Con- 
gress, and partly to an assembly to be chosen by the settlers 
as soon as they amounted to five thousand ; the inhabitants 
and the authorities being alike bound to the observance of 
certain articles of compact between the old states and the 
new ones that might arise within the territory. These 
articles provided for religious liberty; for habeas corpus, 
trial by jury, and kindred privileges ; for the encourage- 
ment of religion and education, and for justice towards the 
Indians ; for the equal rights and responsibilities of the 
new states and the old ; for the division of the territory 
into states ; and lastly, for the prohibition of slavery. 
Under so liberal an organization, surveys, sales, and settle- 
ments followed fast. A colony from Massachusetts was the 
first to occupy Ohio, at Marietta, (1788.) 
^.^ , Sin2;ular enouo;h, while Concrress was taking these 

Diificul- * '^ ' ... 

ties with stcps to prcscrvc the western domains, it was taking 
*^^*''"'' others to endanger them. Eager to secure a treaty 

* It was many years before the Indian title was completely extin- 
guished 

t The south-west territorj% though ceded in great part by the Indians, 
was not yet ceded by the states on whose borders it lay. South Carolina 
was the first to give up her claims, (August, 1787.) 



256 PART III. 1763-1797. 

of commerce with Spain, the Northern and Central Stales 
assented to surrender the navigation of tlie Mississippi to 
that power, (178G.) In tliis they had no less an authority 
upon their side than Washington, who appears to have 
attached more importance to internal communication be- 
tween the west and the east alone than to that wider inter- 
course which the west would possess by means of its miglity 
river. Jeiferson, then the American minister at Paris, was 
farther sighted, '' The act," he wrote, " which abandons 
the navigation of the Mississippi, is an act of separation 
between the eastern and western country," (1787.) Sup- 
pose the right to the Mississippi waived, even for a limited 
period, and the probability is, that a large number of tlie 
western settlers, conceiving themselves sacrificed, would 
have separated from their countrymen, and gained a passage 
through the stream either in war or in alliance with Spain. 
. , Relations with Great Britain were still more dis- 

Great turbcd than those v/ith Spain. Nor were they less 
threatening to the west. The treaty of peace exact- 
ed the surrender of the western posts by Britain. But 
America was required at the same time to provide for the 
debts of great magnitude due to British merchants. This, 
however, was not done. Congress was unable, and the 
states were unwilling, to effect any thing; five states, 
indeed, continuing or commencing measures to prevent the 
collection of British debts. When, therefore, John Adams, 
the first minister to Great Britain, entered into a negotia- 
tion for the recovery of the posts which the British still 
held, he was met at once by the demand that the American 
part in the treaty should be fulfilled, (1786.) The subject 
of debts was not the only one on which the states were 
violating the treaty. Bat it was the chief infraction ; and 
against it chiefly was directed a remonstrance which Con- 
gress addressed to the states, altogether in vain, (1787.) 



THE CONSTITUTION. 257 

Dark " ^^^ consideration felt for America by Europe," 

times. wrote Lafayette, " is diminishing to a degree truly 
painful ; and what has been gained by the revolution is in 
danger of being lost little by little, at least during an intei-- 
val of trial to all the friends of the nation." " I am morti- 
fied beyond expression," wrote Washington, " when I view 
the clouds that have spread over the brightest morn that 
ever dawned upon any country." 

oidfuun- Amid this tottering of the national system, the 
dations. qJ^j foundations stood secure. The laws that had 
been laid deep in the past, the institutions, political and 
social, that had been reared above them, remained to sup- 
port the present uncertainties. Every strong principle of 
the mother country, every broad reform of the colonies, 
contributed to the strength and the development of the 
struggling nation. 

jSTor were recent superstructures wanting. The 
e\Lcr. states, in forming and reforming their constitutions, 
struc- get up many a great principle, undeveloped, if not 

tnres. . ,. . -i*.t i • ^ • 

unknown, m earlier times. JNothing, tor instance, 
could be more novel, as well as more admirable, than the 
indemnity * voted by Pennsylvania to the proprietary family 
of which she had cast off the domir.ion. It was a recog- 
nition of rights belonging to rulers, that had never been 
made by subjects in a successful revolution. The law of 
inheritance was another point of new proportions. The 
claim of the eldest son to a double share of his father's 
property, if not to all the prerogatives of primogeniture, 
was gradually prohibited, Georgia taking the lead. Suf- 
frage was extended in several states,! from holders of real 

* £130,000 sterling, in addition lo all the private domains of the 
family. Maryland made no such indemnity; but the representative of 
her proprietor was an illegitimate son 

t New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Delaware, South Carolina, and, par- 
tially, North Carolina ^^ 



258 PART III. 1763-1797. 

or personal property to all tax-paying freemen. Personal 
liberty obtained extension and protection. The class of 
indented servants diminislied. That of slaves disappeared 
altogether in some of the states. Massachusetts, declaring 
men free and equal by her Bill of Rights, was pronounced 
by her Supreme Court to have put an end to slavery within 
her limits, (1780-83.) Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, 
Rhode Island, and Connecticut forbade the importation of 
slaves, and the bondage of any persons thereafter born 
upon their soil. Other states declared against the transpor- 
tation of slaves from state to state, others against the 
foreign slave trade ; all, in fine, moving with greater or 
less energy in the same direction, save only South Carolina 
and Georgia. Societies were formed in many places to 
quicken the action of the authorities. In making exertions, 
and in maintaining principles like these, the nation was 
proving its title to independence. 

Religious Nothing, however, was more full of promise than 
privileges. ^}jg religious privileges to which the states consented. 
Rhode Island, who, as formerly mentioned, had no dispo- 
sition to change her existing institutions, made one altera- 
tion by striking out the prohibitory statute against Roman 
Catholics, (1784.) But Rhode Island was no longer alone 
in her glory. The majority of the state constitutions 
allowed entire religious liberty. The only real restrictions 
upon it were those to which the Puritan states still clung 
in enforcing the payment of taxes, and the attendance upon 
services in some church or other; the old leaven not having 
entirely lost its power. Particular forms of faith Avere here 
and there required, if not from the citizens, at any rate 
from the magistrates ; Roman Catholics being excluded 
from office in several states of the north, the centre, and 
the south. 

As there was no single fold into which the Christians of 



THE CONSTITUTION. 259 

the United States would enter, it was of the highest 
astieai importance tliat tlieir se})arate folds should be 
oiganiza- marked out and governed upon definite principles. 

Nothing else was likely to prevent collision among 
the more zealous, or straying away among the more luke- 
warm. The American branch of the church of England, 
deserted by the loyalists, and suspected, if not assailed, by 
the patriots, had but just survived the revolutionary strug- 
gle. It obtained its first bishop, Samuel Seabury, by ordi- 
nation in Scotland, (1784,) his first associates, White and 
Provoost, being consecrated in England, (1787.) A conven- 
tion of several states at New York declared their church the 
Protestant Episcopal church of the United States, (1784.) 
The Methodist Episcopal church, strongest in the centre and 
the south, obtained its first bishop, Thomas Coke, (1784.) 
Two years afterwards, the first Roman Catholic bishop, John 
Carroll, was appointed to the see of Baltimore, (1786.) 
The Presbyterians then formed their synods for the Central 
and the Southern States, (1788.) In the north, the Presby- 
terians and the Congregationalists, uniting to a certain 
degree, continued their ancient institutions. All over the 
country, ecclesiastical systems were reducing themselves to 
form and law. 

Su"-c!:es- It was time for the nation to profit by the exam- 
tions of pigg j^jj(] ij^g principles that have been enumerated, 

a nation- 
al Consti- — time for it to guard against the conflicts and the 

tution. perils that have been described. Alexander Ham- 
ilton, as mentioned in a former chapter, conceived the idea 
of a Convention for forming a national Constitution as early 
as 1780. Other individuals advocated the same measure, 
in private or in public. The legislature of New York 
supported it in 1782. The legislature of Massachusetts 
supported it in 1785. 

In the spring of the same year, (1785,) a number of 



260 PART III. 1763-1797. 

commissioners from Maryland and Virginia assem- 

Conven- n ^ n ^ - 

tions at bled at Alexandria, for the purpose of regulatnig 
Aiexan- ^j^^ navigation of the Chesapeake and the Potomac. 

una ami ~ ^ 

Annapo- They also met at Mount Vernon. James Madison 
was one of their number, and he suggested the 
appointment of commissioners with additional powers to 
act, with the assent of Congress, in organizing a tariff for 
the two states. This being recommended by the commis- 
sion at Alexandria, the Virginia legislature enlarged the 
plan, by appointing commissioners to meet others, not only 
from Maryland, but from all the states, and " to take into 
consideration the trade of the United States." Five states 
were represented in a Convention at Annapolis in the 
autumn of the following year, (1786.) They were wise 
enough to see two things : one, that five states could not act 
for the whole ; and the other, that the subject of trade was 
but a drop in the ocean of difficulties with which the nation 
was threatened. At the proposal of Alexander Hamilton, 
one of the commissioners, and the same who had urged the 
formation of a Constitution six years before, the Convention 
at Annapolis recommended a national convention at Phila- 
delphia in the ensuing month of May, " to take into consid- 
eration the situation of the United States, to devise such 
further provisions as shall appear necessary to render the 
Constitution of the federal government adequate to the 
exigencies of the Union, and to report such an act for that 
purpose to the United States in Congress assembled, as, 
when agreed to by them, and afterwards confirmed by the 
legislature of every state, will effectually provide for the 
same." 

Action of The first to act upon this proposal from Annapo- 
Viiginia. lig ^yj^g ^]^g gtate so often foremost in the cause of 
the country. Thus spoke Virginia : " The General Assem- 
bly of this commonwealth, taking into view the actual 



THE CONSTITUTION. 261 

situation of the Confederacy, . . . can no longer doubt 
that the crisis is arrived at which the good people of Amer- 
ica are to decide the solemn question whether they will, by 
wise and magnanimous efforts, reap the just fruits of that 
independence which they have so gloriously acquired, and 
of that union which they have cemented with so much of 
their common blood, or whether, by giving way to unmanly 
jealousies and prejudices, or to partial and transitory inter- 
ests, they will renounce the auspicious blessings prepared 
for them by the revolution. . . . The same noble and 
extended policy, and the same fraternal and affectionate 
sentiments which originally determined the citizens of this 
commonwealth to unite with their brethren of the other 
states in establishing a federal government, cannot but be 
felt with equal force now, as motives to lay aside every 
inferior consideration, and to concur in such further conces- 
sions and provisions as may be necessary to secure the 
great objects for which that government was instituted, and 
to render the United States as happy in peace as they have 
been glorious in war." Thereupon the legislature apf)ointed 
its deputies to join with those of the other states " in devis- 
ing and discussing all such alterations and provisions as 
may be necessary to render the Federal Constitution ade- 
quate to the exigencies of the Union." 

The noble example thus set was at once followed 
states ^y New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and 
and of Delaware. By the time these states declared them- 

Congress. /-ni -irTOTz-i c 

selves, (l^ebruary, 1787,) Congress, after many 
doubts as to the propriety of the course, came out with a 
call of its own. Listead, however, of taking the broad 
ground on which Virginia set herself. Congress limited 
its summons to a convention " for the sole and express pur- 
pose of revising the Articles of Confederation." The other 
states, Rhode Island excepted, went on to appoint their del- 



262 PAKT III. 1763-1797. 

elates. The credentials of some representations supported 
the Hberal views of Virginia ; those of others the narrower 
purpose of Congress. Only one state, Dekiware, laid its 
representatives under a positive restriction, namely, to 
maintain the right of the state, the smallest but one in the 
Union, to an equal vote in any government that might be 
framed. 

The same hall in which the Declaration of Inde- 
o?fhe"^ pendence had been adopted, more than eleven years 
Conven- before, and in which Congress had continued to sit 

dunng the greater part oi the intervening period, m 
the State House at Philadelphia, was chosen for the ses- 
sions of the Convention. The day fixed for the opening 
arrived. " Such members as were in town " — runs the 
diary of Washington, who had consented, against his incli- 
nation, to sit in the Convention — " assembled at the State 
House; but only two states being represented, namely, Vir- 
ginia and Pennsylvania, agreed to meet to-morrow," (May 
14, 1787.) It must have been with anxious thoughts that 
the few who met found themselves obliged to separate day 
after day, without being able to make so much as a begin- 
ning in the work before them. At length, eleven days 
after the appointed time, the representatives of seven states 
— a bare majority — assembled and opened the Conven- 
tion. As a matter of course, George Washington was 
elected president, (May 25.) 

The United States of America never wore a more 

majestic aspect than in the Convention, which grad- 
ually * filled up with the delegates of every state except 
Rhode Island. The purpose of the assembly was sufficient 
to invest it with solemnity. To meet in the design of 
strengthening instead of enfeebling authority, of forming a 

* New Ilampshire was not represented till July 23. 



THE CONSTITUTION. . 263 

government which should enable the nation to fulfil, instead 
of eluding, its obhgations alike to the citizen and the stran- 
ger, — to meet with these intentions was to do what the 
world had never witnessed. It is scarcely necessary to say 
that lower motives entered in ; that the interests of classes 
and of sections, the prejudices of narrow politicians and of 
selfish men, obtruded themselves with ominous strenjrth. 
Many of the members were altogether unequal to the na- 
tional duties of the Convention. But they were surrounded 
by others of a nobler mould — by the venerable Franklin, 
lately returned from his French mission, the representative 
of the later colonial days ; by various members of the 
Stamp Act Congress, of the Congress that declared inde- 
pendence, and of the subsequent Congresses before and 
during the Confederation ; by several representatives of 
the younger class of patriots, notably by Alexander Ham- 
ilton and James Madison, who had been conspicuous in the 
movements preliminary to the Convention ; and by many 
more whose names do not depend upon a volume like the 
iwesent for reverential recollection. 

The rules of the Convention ordered secrecy of 
a cousti- debate and the right of each state to an equal vote. 
Governor Randolph, of Virginia, then opened the 
deliberations upon a constitution by offering a series of res- 
olutions proposing a national legislature of two branches, a 
national executive, and a national judiciary of supreme and 
inferior tribunals. Charles C. Pinckney, of South Carolina, 
offered a sketch of government, based on the same prin- 
ciples as Randolph's, but developed with greater detail. 
Both the plans were referred to a committee of the whole ,* 
but Randolph's, or the Virginia plan, as it was rightly 
called, engrossed the debate. At the end of a fortnight the 
committee reported in favor of the Virginia system. 
Things had not gone so far without opposition, to the ele- 



264 . PAUT III. 1763-1797. 

ments of which we will revert immediately. On the re- 
port of the committee, a new plan was offered by William 
Patterson, of New Jersey, embodying the views of Con- 
necticut, New York, Delaware, and Maryland, as well 
as New Jersey delegates. This New Jersey plan, so 
styled, proposed a government of much more limited powers 
than that of the Virginia pattern. The two were referred 
to a committee of the whole. Soon afier, Alexander Ham- 
ilton broached a plan of his own, going to the very opposite 
extreme of the New Jersey system. He was for taking the 
British constitution as " the best model the w^orld has ever 
produced," and for creating a national government, of which 
the executive and the higher branch of the legislature, as 
well as the judiciary, should all be elected to serve during 
good behavior or life. Hamilton presented his plan as an 
exposition of his personal convictions rather than as a sub- 
ject for debate, confessing that it was " very remote from 
the idea of the people." The question, therefore, lay be- 
tween the Virginia and the New Jersey plans. 
Question ^ut there was another question to be previously 
of powers. (Jecidcd, if not by formal vote, at least by the course 
of opinions. Doubt existed about the jiowers of the Con- 
vention. Some insisted that it could do no more than 
revise the Articles of the Confederation ; in other words, 
that it might reform, but not displace, the existing govern- 
ment. These members were of course the sujiporters of the 
New Jersey plan. They called it by the name of federal, 
in opposition to the system, at the time styled anti-federal, 
of their opponents. The anti-federal — that is, the national 
men — maintained the necessity of a new government as 
sufficient to authorize the Convention to frame one, even if 
the power to do so had not been expressly given. They 
urged this the more, in that the Convention would not 
create the government, but simply recommend its creation 



THE CONSTITUTION. 265 

to the nation. The difference between the two sides was, 
as we see, immense. As the one or as the other prevailed, 
so followed the fate not merely of the Virginia and the 
New Jersey plans, but of the Constitution and the nation. 
A uitionai ^^ ^^^^' therefore, a turning point in the move- 
system ments of the Convention, when the committee of the 
^ °P ^ • whole reported once more in favor of the Virginia 
plan. The labors of construction and of detail were all to be 
gone through. But the one guiding and assuring principle 
of a national system was gained, (June 19.) 

Parties were by this time but too distinctly de- 
smatr* ^^^^* '^^^^ federal side was taken, as a general 
states and rule, by the representatives of the small states, the 
states. national by those of the large. Whatever was up- 
held by the large states, especially Massachusetts, 
Pennsylvania, and, above all, Virginia, was, as if for this 
simple reason, opposed by the small ones. There was a 
constant dread of the dominion which, it was supposed, 
would be exercised by the superior states to the disadvan- 
tage and the disgrace of those of inferior rank. Perhaps 
the tone assumed by the large states Vv^as such as reasonably 
to inspire suspicion. Certain it is, that the breach between 
the two parties grew wider and wider, particularly when 
the committee and the Convention pronounced in flivor of 
the national plan. Within ten days afterwards, Franklin, 
shocked by tlie altercations around him, moved that prayers 
should be said every morning. The motion was parried, 
partly, it was said, to prevent the public from surmising the 
divisions of the Convention. 

^'i ws of "^^^ starting point, so far as theory was con- 
state gov- cerned, of the two parties, was the government by 
states. In this, the federal members argued, re- 
sides the only principle of sovereignty, and to this recourse 
must be had for the life and breath of a government for the 
23 



2G6 PART III. 1763-1797. 

nation. Hence the name of federal, implying the support 
of a league — that is, a league between the states — as the 
true form of a general government. All this the national 
})arty opposed. We are not met, they reasoned, to fashion 
a Constitution out of the states or for the states, but to 
create a Constitution for the people ; it is the people, not 
the states, who are to be governed and united; it is the 
people, moreover, from whom the power required for the 
Constitution is to emanate. At the same time, the national 
members, with a few exceptions, were far from denying the 
excellence of state governments. These, they urged, are 
precisely what we want to manage the local affairs of the 
different portions of the country ; in this capacity, the states 
will be truly the pillars of the Union. 

Votes of These views had entered largely into the debates 
Btates. already decided by the adoption of a national plan 
for the Constitution. They were again brought forward, 
and with renewed earnestness, in relation to a question now 
coming up for decision. Before the Confederation, and 
after it, the votes of the states in Congress had been equal, 
each state having a single vote, and no more. This was 
the rule, as has been mentioned, of the Convention. But 
when the point was reached in the constitutional debates, 
the national party insisted upon an entirely different sys- 
tem. The votes to be taken in the legislative branches of 
the new government are not, it was asserted, the votes of 
the states, but the votes of the people ; let them, therefore, 
be given according to the numbers of the people, not of the 
states. Not so, replied the federal members, — and they 
had reason to be excited, for it was from apprehension on 
this very point that they had opposed the national plan, — 
not so, they replied, or our states, with their scanty votes, 
will be utterly absorbed in the larger states. One of the 
small states, Delaware, sent her representatives, as may 



THE CONSTITUTION. 267 

be remembered, with express instructions to reserve her 

equal vote in the national legislature. But the federal 

party, already disappointed, found itself doomed to a fresh 

disappointment. Abandoning, or intimating that it was 

willing to abandon, the claim of an equal vote in both 

branches of the legislature, it stood the firmer for equality 

in one of the branches — the Senate of the Constitution. 

Even this more moderate demand was disregarded by the 

majority, intent upon unequal votes in both the branches. 

Great agitation followed. " We will sooner sub- 
Agitation. I « • T • /» 

mit to foreign power 1 cried a representative from 
one of the small states. But for the reference of the 
matter to a committee, who, at the instance of Franklin, 
adopted a compromise, making the votes of the states equal 
in the Senate, the work of the Convention would have come 
to a sudden close. As it was, the report of the committee 
hardly allayed the tumultuous passions that had been 
aroused. It but partly satisfied the small states, while it 
kindled the wrath of the large, secure as these thought 
themselves, upon the point which they were now required 
to yield. "If no compromise should take place," asked 
Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, " what will be the con- 
sequence ? A secession will take place, for some gentle- 
men seem decided on it." It was the federal party that 
talked of secession. The national party, no wiser, as a 
whole, spoke of the dismemberment and absorption of the 
smaller states, hinting at the sword. Two of the New 
York delegation, incensed or dejected by the triumphant 
course of the national members, deserted the Convention. 
" We were on the verge of dissolution," said Luther Martin, 
a member from Maryland, " scarce held together by the 
strength of a hair." Fortunately, peace prevailed. The 
compromise was accepted, and both national and federal 
members united in determining on an equal vote in the 
Senate and an unequal vote in the House that were to be. 



268 PART III. 1763-1797. 

„ .. Another division besides that between the larsre 

Parties : ^ 

north aud and the small states had now appeared. It sepa- 
^^"*''* rated the north from the south. How many 
reasons there were for the separation has been remarked ; 
but the reason of all, the one so strong as to lead men to 
acknowledge that the division between the north and the 
south was wider than any other in the Convention, — the 
great reason was slavery. This system, pierced, if not 
overthrown, in all the Northern and in some of the Central 
States, was still cherished in the south. The scanty num^ 
bers of the free population in the Southern States seemed 
to make slaves a necessity there. 

The first struggle upon the point arose with re- 

Appor- . • Xi 

tionment spcct to tlic apportionment oi representation. It 

of repre- ^^g ^^ -^q decided how the people were to be repre- 
sentation. ^ ^ ^ 

sented, in what proportions, and in what classes. 

Upon this subject all other questions yielded to one, 
namely, whether slaves should be included with free- 
men, not, of course, as voting, but as making up the num- 
ber entitled to representation. The extreme party of the 
south said that they must be, and on the same terms, being 
equally valuable as the free laborers of the north. On the 
other hand, the extreme party of tlie^ north declared that 
slaves should never, be taken into account until they were 
emancipated, as they ought to be. The necessity for com- 
promise was again evident. The moderate members of 
either side came together, and agreed that three fifths of 
the slave population should be enumerated with tlie whole 
of the white population in apportioning the representatives 
amongst the different states. 

The slave -A- graver point was raised. In the draught of the 
trade. Constitution now under debate, there stood a clause 
forbidding the general government to lay any tax or prohi- 
bition upon the migrations or the importations authorized 



THE CONSTITUTION. 269 

by the states. This signified that there was to be no inter- 
ference with the slave trade. " It is inconsistent," ex- 
claimed Martin, of Maryland, " with the principles of the 
revolution, and dishonorable to the American character, to 
have such a feature in the Constitution ! " " Religion and 
humanity," answered John Rutledge, of South Carolina, 
" have nothing to do with this question. Interest alone is 
the governing principle of nations. The true question at 
present is, whether the Southern States shall or sliail not 
be parties to the Union." Charles C. Pinckney, calmer than 
his colleague, took broader ground. " If the states be left at 
liberty on this subject, South Carolina may perhaps by de- 
grees do of herself what is wished, as Virginia and Maryland 
have already done." The opposition to the claims of the 
extreme south came from the Central States, especially from 
Virginia, not from the north. The north, intent upon the 
passage of acts protective of its large shipping interests, 
was quite ready to come to an understanding with the 
south. The consequence was that, instead of imitating the 
example of earlier years and declaring the slave trade at an 
end, tlie Convention protracted its existence for twenty 
years, (till 1808.) At the same time, the restriction upon 
acts relatinii; to commerce was stricken from the Constitu- 
tion. Dark as this transaction seems, it was still a com- 
^promise. To extend the slave trade for twenty years was 
far better than to leave it without any limit at all. It was 
at the close of these discussions that the draught of the clause 
respecting fugitive slaves was introduced, and accepted 
without discussion. The word slaves^ however, was avoided 
here, as it had been in all the portions of the Constitution 
relating to slavery. 

Details There is no occasion in this place for dwelhng 

and dis- upon the details and the discussions of the Conven- 
cussions. ^.^^^^ Wherever there was a detail, there was aJ- 

23* 



270 PART III. 1763-1797. 

most invariably a discussion ; but the interest in the debates 
generally was altogether subordinate to that excited by the 
questions which have been mentioned. On these, as the 
questions involving compromise, it was felt that the Consti- 
tution depended. " The Constitution which we now pre- 
sent " — thus ran the draught of a letter proposed to be ad- 
dressed to Congress — "is the result of a spirit of amity 
and of that mutual deference and concession which the 
peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable." 
" I can well recollect," said James Wilson to his constitu- 
ents of Pennsylvania, " the impression which on many occav 
sions was made by the difficulties which surrounded and 
pressed the Convention. The great undertaking sometimes 
seemed to be at a stand; and other times its motions 
seemed to be retrograde." 

At length, after nearly four month.^ perseverance 
ofthe'°" through all the heat of summer, the Convention 
Coiistitu- agreed to the Constitution, (September 15.) As 

tion. . 1 T 1 1 • • 1 

soon as it could be properly engrossed, it was signed 
by all the delegates, save Gerry, of Massachusetts, — who 
hinted at civil war being about to ensue, — Randolph and 
George Mason, of Virginia, (September 17.) As the last 
members were signing, Franklin pointed to a sun painted 
upon the back of the president's chair, saying, "I have often 
and often, in the course of the session and the vicissitude 
of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that sun 
behind the president, without being able to tell whether it 
was rising or setting ; but now, at length, I have the happi- 
ness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun." 
rt„„ ... The dawn was still uncertain. Presented to 

Opposition 

in the na- Congi'css, and thcncc transmitted to the states, to 

be by them accepted or rejected, the Constitution 

was received with very general murmurs. Even some 

members of the Convention, on reaching home, declared, 



THE CONSTITUTION. 271 

like Martin, of Maryland, " I would reduce myself to indi- 
gence and poverty, ... if on those terms only I could 
procure my country to reject those chains which are forged 
for it." The words imply the chief cause of the opposition 
excited throuQ-hout the nation. It was thouirht that the 
Constitution was too strong, that, it exalted tlie powers of 
the government too high, and depressed the rights of the 
states and tiie people too low. This was the opinion of the 
anti-federalists — a name borne rather than assumed by 
those who had constituted, or by those who succeeded to, the 
federal party in the Convention. On the other side stood 
the federalists, the national party of tlfe Convention, with 
their adherents throughout the country. But the names, 
like most party names, rather obscured than explahied the 
relations of those to whom they were attached. The feder- 
alists were no advocates of a simple league between the 
states. Nor were the anti-federalists the opponents of such 
a league, but, on the contrary, its supporters. They op- 
posed, not the union, but what they called the subjection of 
the states, proposed by the Constitution. 

One who acted for the Constitution at the time, 

Constitu- 
tional and who wrote of it in after years, — ; Jeremy Bel- 
wii ings. j^j-^g^p^ ^i^gj-^ r^ clergyman of Boston, — tells a story 
illustrating the changing tempers of the period. A man has 
a new pair of small-clothes brought home to him. " It is too 
small here, says he, and wants to be let out ; it is too big 
here, and wants to be taken in. I am afraid there will be a 
hole there, .and you must put on a patch ; this button is not 
strong enough — you must set on another." But, taking 
his wife's advice, he tried on the garment, and found him- 
self satisfied. The constitutional writings, as they may be 
called, of the twelvemonth succeeding the Convention, were 
far in advance of any preceding productions of America, 
The greatness of the cause called forth new powers of 



272 PART III. 1763-1797. 

mind, nay, new powers of heart. Washington's letters 
upon the subject overflow with emotions such as his calm 
demeanor had seldom betrayed before. Under the signa- 
ture of Publiu.^, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and 
John Jay united in the composition of the Federalist. It 
was a succession of essays, some profound in argument, 
others thrilling in appeal, and all devoted to setting forth 
the principles and foretelling the operations of the Consti- 
tution. Under the signature of Fabius, John Dickinson — 
the same v/hose Farmer's Letters had pleaded for liberty 
twenty years before — now pleaded for constitutional gov- 
ernment. It was not merely the Constitution that Y/as thus 
rendered clear and precious. The subject was as wide as 
the rights of man. 
, , ,. So strong and so wise exertion was not in vain. 

Adoption o 

by the State after state, beginning with Delaware, (De- 
cember 7, 1787,) assented to the Constitution, some 
by large, some by exceedingly small majorities. In most 
of the bodies by which the ratification was declared, a series 
of amendments was framed and passed. North Carolina 
assented only on condition of her amendments being adopt- 
ed. In one o^the state Conventions, New York, the recom- 
mendation of another general Convention was pressed upon 
the nation. New York was the scene of more decided 
demonstrations. The list of what can be called riots 
throughout the country, at the time, begins and ends with a 
collision between two bands of the rival parties, at Albany, 
and the destruction of the type in an anti-federalist news- 
paper establishment at New York, (July 4-27, 1788.) 
The project of a second Convention found favor in Pennsyl- 
vania. It was then taken up by the assembly of Virginia, 
but after the Convention of that state had accepted the Con- 
stitution. In seeing these states arrayed in greater or less 
strength against the Constitution, one is struck by their 



THE CONSTITUTION. 273 

being large states, to which the Constitution was suppo.-ed 
to be particularly acceptaljle. The other of the largest 
states, Massachusetts, had bat a bare majority to give in 
favor of the Constitution. On the other hand, several of 
the small states were now the most earnest supporters of 
federalist principles. The causes of this ixivolution were 
chiefly local. But, actuated by different motives, the lai-ge 
states, or rather the parties in the large state , opposing the 
unconditional adoption of the Constitution, were unable to 
combine with any effect. The generous impulses and the 
united exertions of their opponents carried the day. Only 
North Carolina and Rhode Island stood aloof, and the 
former but partially, when Congress performed the last act 
preliminary to the establishment of the Constitution, by 
appointing days for the requisite elections and for the or- 
ganization of the new government, (September 13, 1788.) 

Thus was completed the most extraordinary 
of the transaction of which merely human history bea^s 
transac- j-ecord. A nation enfeebled, dismembered, and 

tiou. ... 

dispirited, broken by the losses of war, by the dis- 
sensions of peace, incapacitated for its duties to its own citi- 
zens or to foreign powers, suddenly bestirred itself and 
prepared to create a government. It chose its representa- 
tives without conflicts or even commotions. They cara« 
together, at first only to disagree, to threaten, and to fail. 
But against the spells of individual selfishness and sectional 
passion, the inspiration of the national cause proved potent. 
The representatives of the nation consented to the measures 
on which the common honor and the common safety de- 
pended. Then the nation itself broke out in clamors. 
Still there was no violence, or next to none. No sort of 
contention arose between state and state. Each had its own 
differences, its own hesitations ; but when each had decided 
for itself, it joined the rest and proclaimed the Constitution. 



274 PART III. 1763-1797. 

The work thus achieved was not merely for the 

Sympa- 
thy for nation that achieved it. In the midst of their 
mankind. ^^^^^^ ^^^^^j ^j^^^jj, dangers, a few generous spirits, if 
no more, gathered fresh courage by looking beyond the 
limits of their country. Let Washington speak for them. 
"I conceive," says he, " under an energetic general govern- 
ment, such regulations might be made, and such measures 
taken, as would render this country the asylum of pacific 
and industrious characters from all parts of Europe," — "a 
kind of asylum," as he says in another place, " for man- 
kind." It was not, therefore, for America alone that her 
sons believed themselves to have labored, but for the world. 
It has already appeared that the writings of the sol- 
of the diei-s and the statesmen of the period were, in many 
tkmami ii^^jtances, as important as their actions. There 
the Con- -were other Avriters, who stood conspicuous, solely or 

stitution. n 1 ' T 

almost solely, on account or their literary exertions. 
Such was Thomas Paine, an Englishman, whose pamplilet 
of Common Sense (1776) had so great an effect that its 
author, though then but a few months in the country, pre- 
tended afterwards to have started the re-^'olution. His 
later pamphlets, issued during the v»^ar under the name of 
the Crisis, were of equal power. Among'st the American 
authors were John Trumbull, of Connecticut, whose poem 
of McFingal (begun 1774) was a satire at once upon his 
countrymen and upon their foes ; Francis Hopkinson, of 
Philadelphia, who, after various productions in prose and in 
rhyme relating to the war, came to the aid of the Constitu- 
tion in an allegory entitled the New Roof; and Philip Fre- 
neau, of New York, whose verses upon the battles of the 
revolution were amongst the most popular and the most 
artistic compositions of the times. The influence of such a 
literature may be conceived. It spread the stin-ing spirit 
of the camp and of the council around the fireside and 



THE CONSTITUTION. 275 

within the closet, kindling sympathy, arousing action, and 
thus contributing largely to the national redemption. 
u~ ,„, Nor should we fbro;et, in this connection, the in- 

•^ The mu- * ' ' 

sic of Bii- fluence of the first of our composers, William Bil- 
'°^^' lings, a Bostonian. Such was his enthusiasm at 
once for his art and for his country, that, though almost 
uneducated as a musician, he moved many a spirit by his 
ardent strains. His melodies were heard on the march and 
on the battle field as well as in the choir ; such as his Inde- 
pendence and his Columbia may be called psalms of the 
revolution and of the Constitution. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Washington's Administration. 

_ . The name of Washington was almost a part of 

ton pres- the Constitution. " The Constitution would never 
have been adopted," — thus Edmund Randolph, by 
no means a strong adherent to Washington, wrote to him 
afterwards, — " but from a knowledge that you had once 
sanctioned it, and an expectation that you would execute 
it." " The Constitution," Lafayette wrote at once from 
Paris, " satisfies many of our desires ; but I am much mis- 
taken if there are not some points that would be perilous, 
had not the United States the happiness of possessing their 
guardian angel, who will lead them to whatever still remains 
to be done before reaching perfection." Such was the 
universal voice of the nation, and of the nation's well 
wishers. The presidential electors gave in their votes 
without a single exception in favor of Wasliington ; and he 
consented to what he had reason to call " this last great 
sacrifice." " I bade adieu to Mount V'^rnon," he writes in 
his diary, " to private life, and to domestic felicity ; and 
with a mind oppressed with more anxious a: d painful sen- 
sations than I have words to express, set out with the best 
disposition to render service to my country in obedience 
to its call, but with less hope of answering its expecta- 
tions." 

The two houses of Congress had been organized in New 

(276) 



WASHINGTON'S ADMlNISXrtATION. 277 

York, after a month's delay.* A day or two before 
tion of Washington's arrival, John Adams took his place as 
goTern- yj^g president. The inauo;uration of the presi- 

ment. ^ & i 

dent, postponed a few days after he was ready for 
the ceremony, at length completed the organization of the 
government, (April 30, 1789.) 
„ , . It was one thinor for Washino;ton to receive the 

Solemn 1- ® o 

ty of the homages of his countrymen, on his journey to the 
seat of government, and on his entrance into office 
there ; all this was smiling to the eye, and full of j^romise 
to the ear. But it was another thing to remember the 
weaknesses and the divisions of the nation ; to behold the 
present sources of peril ; and to feel that the Constitution 
was still an untried instrument, unmoved, perhaps unmov- 
able. Whatever has been said of the solemnity of former 
periods, or of former duties, must be repeated with stronger 
emphasis of the work now before Washington and his 
coadjutors. Of far greater difficulty than the formation of 
the Constitution was the setting it in operation. Washing- 
ton knew it all. And almost the first words which broke 
from his lips, as president of the United States, were words 
of prayer. " It would be peculiarly improper," he said at 
the beginning of his inaugural speech, " to omit in this first 
official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being 
who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils 
of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every 
human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the 
liberties and happiness of the people of the United States, 
a government instituted by themselves for these essential 
purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its 

* March 4 being the appointed day; and the House not having a 
quorum till March 30, the Senate none till April 6. 

24 



278 PART III. 1763-1797. 

administration to execute with success the functions allotted 
to his charge." 

Washing- lu the same spirit Washington inA^oked the sup- 
ton to his p^^j.|. ^f those around him, not merely as his fellow- 

fellow- ^ / ^ 

Chris- countrymen, but as his fellow-Christians. Among 
tians. ^jj ^j^^ addresses hailing his accession to the presi- 
dency, from political and industrial, from literary and scien- 
tific bodies, none seemed to please him more than those 
received from religious organizations. In his replies, he 
remarks upon his need of their sympathies and prayers. 
Convinced that nothing could so bind the nation together 
as charity amongst the different branches of Christians, he 
insists upon it with peculiar earnestness. In an address to 
his own church, the Protestant Episcopal, he expresses his 
joy " to see Christians of different denominations dwell 
together in more charity, and conduct themselves in respect 
to each other with a more Christian-like spirit, than ever 
they have done in any former age or in any other nation." 
To the church that had been an object of persecution 
through the whole colonial period, the Roman Catholic, 
the president wrote as follows : "• I hope ever to see 
America among the foremost nations in examples of justice 
and liberality. And I presume that your fellow-citizens 
will not forget the patriotic part which you took in the 
accomplishment of their revolution, and the establishment 
of their government." 

The na- Thcsc principles, so far above any of a merely 
tion. political character, were to be applied to a nation 
now numbering nearly four millions.* This was the popu- 
lation of all the thirteen states. The Constitution, as will 
be recollected, went into operation with the assent of but 



* The census of 1790 gave, whites, 3,172,464; free blacks, 59,466; 
slaves, 697,897 : total, 3,929,827. 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 279 

eleven. North Carolina acceded in eight months, (Novem- 
ber 13 ;) Rhode Island in fifteen, (May 29, 1790.) 

The great feature of the opening years of Wash- 
Conness. i^^gton's administration was the work of Congress, 
The de- the body upon whose laws the government depend- 
uients ed for movement, if not for life. The departments 
nnd the y^Q^Q organized ; one of state, one of the treasury 

i luuciary. ^ •' ' 

and one of war ; each being under the control of a 
secretary. The three secretaries, with an attorney general, 
constituted the cabinet of the president ; the postmaster 
general not being a cabinet officer until a later period. 
Washington appointed Thomas Jefferson the first secretary 
of state, Alexander Hamilton the first secretary of the 
treasury, Henry Knox the first secretary of war, Ed- 
mund Randolph the first attorney general, and Samuel 
Osgood the first postmaster general, (September, 1789.) 
At the same time, he made his appointments for the offices 
of the judiciary ; Congress having created a Supreme 
Court, with Circuit and District Courts appended. John 
Jay was the first chief justice of the United States. 

Congress had already launched into constitution- 
ments to 3,1 discussious. The amendments to the Constitu- 
the Con- i{qyy proDosed by the different states, were numerous 

stitutioii. '11./ 7 

enough — fifty and upwards — to call for early at- 
tention. It was not suggested either by the states or bj 
their congressional representatives, to make any fundamen- 
tal alterations in the Constitution. The old federal, now 
the anti-federalist party, from whom most of the amend- 
ments came, asked for no subversion of the national system. 
They were contented with a few articles, declaring the 
states and the people in possession of all the powers and 
all the rights not otherwise surrendered to the general 
government. These articles, to the number of ten, were 
adopted by Congress, and accepted by the states. 



280 PART III. 1763-1797. 

A far more vital matter was the revenue. To 
this Congress addressed itself in the first weeks of 
the session. The result of long and difRcult debates was 
the enactment of a tariff, mtended to serve at once for 
revenue and for protection of domestic mterests. A ton- 
nage duty, with great advantages to American shipping, 
was also adopted. Some time afterwards, indeed towards 
the close of the first Congress, an excise was laid on domes- 
tic sjjirits. These measures were modified at intervals. 
But beneath them, in all their forms, there continued the 
principle, that the duties upon imports were to provide for 
government in the shape of a revenue, and for the nation 
in the shape of protection. It was no time for free trade. 

It fell to the first Congress, likewise, to provide 
for the public credit. The debts of the Confedera- 
tion amounted to fifty-four millions of dollars, or to eighty 
millions if the debts of the states, incurred for general 
objects, were added. It was the plan of Hamilton, secre- 
tary of the treasury, that these debts should be taken as a 
whole to be assumed and funded by the new government. 
All sorts of opinions were started. Agreeing that the 
foreign debt should be treated in the manner proj)Osed, the 
members of Congress were altogether at variance upon the 
subject, first, of the domestic debt due from the Confeder- 
ation itself, and second, of the debt due from the separate 
states of the Confederation. On the first point, it was 
argued by a large number, that the certificates of the 
public debt were no longer in the hands of the original 
holders, and that to fund them at their par value was 
simply to put money into the pockets of sj^eculators to 
whom the first holders had transferred them at great sacri- 
fices. On the second point, that of assuming the state 
debts, the opposition was still more earnest, especially from 
the representatives of those states whose exertions during 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 281 

the war of the revolution had been comparatively limited. 
It was a matter, moreover, to be supported or opposed 
according to the various views of the state and the national 
governments. They who, like the proposer of the system, 
desired to see the national government strong, advocated its 
being made the centre of the public credit ; while they 
who inclined to the rights of the states, preferred to have 
the debt remain in state rather than in national stocks. 
Mann r ^^^ question was not decided upon any abstract 
of de- grounds. It had been a bone of contention where 
the seat of the general government should be locat- 
ed, some going for one place and some for another. When 
the House of Rej)resentatives decided against assuming the 
state debts, the advocates of the assumption hit upon the 
plan of securing the necessary votes from some of the 
Virginian or JNIaryland members, by consenting to fix the 
projected capital on the Potomac."^ The bait Avas snapped 
at, and a measure on which the honor of the states, if not 
of the nation, depended, passed by means of unconcealed 
intrigue. The state debts were then assumed, not in mass, 
but in certain proportions. This being the cliief object of 
altercation, the funding of the domestic and foreign debt of 
the general government was rapidly completed, (August 4, 
1790.) The transaction was by no means to the satisfac- 
tion of the entire nation. Even Virginia, who>e rejiresen- 
tatives had voted for the scheme, considering their state to 
be amply repaid by the location of the capital on the 
Potomac, declared against the whole system, save only that 
part relating to the foreign debt. The funding of the 
general domestic debt was pronounced to be " dangerous to 
the rights, and subversive of tlie interests, of the people ; " 
while that of the state debts was " repugnant to the Consti- 
tution." The opposition did not end here. 

* Philndelphia to be the capital until 1800. 

24* 



282 PART III. 1763-1797. 

National The public Creditors, on the other hand, were de- 
bank, lighted. All the moneyed interests of the country, 
indeed, were quickened, the public bonds being so much 
additional capital thrown into the world of industry and of 
commerce. The creation of a national bank, with the design 
of sustaining the financial operations of government, took 
place in the early part of the following year, (1791.) On 
the opening of the subscription books, a signal proof of the 
confidence now placed in the national credit was given, the 
whole number of shares offered being taken up in two 
hours. At the same time, the number and the earnestness 
of the party averse to these movements of the government 
were increased by the success with which they were attended. 
It had been made a question in the very cabinet of the pres- 
ident, by Jefferson and Randolph, whether the charter of the 
bank was not beyond the limits of the Constitution. Wash- 
ington himself had hesitated to approve the act of Congress. 
The construction of the Constitution was one of 

Parties. . , . , . 

the pomts on which parties were now contending. 
It was a natural principle with the federalists that the Con- 
stitution should be interpreted freely ; that is, in such a 
way as to give the government the full measure of its 
powers. On the other hand, the anti-federalists were for 
limiting the provisions of the Constitution, if not as far as 
possible, at least as far as they thought required by the 
independence of the states and of the people. Every sub- 
ject brought before Congress excited questions of congres- 
sional powers. The organization of the government, the 
creation of a tariff, of a national debt, and, as just men- 
tioned, of a bank, all were argued for or against, according 
to the different views of the work to be done by Congress. 
Party spirit, however, was by no means confined to consti- 
tutional arguments. It appeared on every occasion, charg- 
ing the federalists, now the dominant class, with monarchi- 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 283 

cal scliemes as their ends, and with corrupt dealings as their 
means ; while the anti-federalists, who took the name of re- 
publicans, were accused of tendencies to intrigue and to 
sedition. So violent was the temper on both sides, that the 
cry went up of separation from the Union. This, too, 
when the Union was but just formed. 

.^^j But of all the passions so prematurely exploding, 
Eortii aud nouc wcrc SO threatening as those of the north and 
the south. The same division that had been ob- 
served to be wider than any other before the Constitution, 
continued wider than any still. Even the controversies 
between the federalists and the republicans were not so 
great or so absorbing as to crowd out the matters of dis- 
sension between the Southern and the Northern States. 
Nay, the divisions of the two portions of the country were 
rather enhanced by those between the two parties; for 
although there were many republicans in the north and 
many federalists in the south, yet the south, as a general 
rule, was republican, and the north federalist. This was 
inevitable. The interests of the northern industry, its ship- 
ping, its commerce, and its manufactures, called for a very 
different policy on the part of the government from that 
demanded by the southern agriculture. 

The gre-at line of distinction was run by slavery. 

Points 

concern- The points of this thorny subject, so far from being 
ing sia- smoothed by the compromises of the Constitution, 

very. "^ 

Stood up as bristling as ever. In the very first year 
of the new government, there came petitions from the 
Quakers of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey, ask- 
ing for the abolition of the slave trade. With this, as stated 
in the account of the Convention, Congress had no power to 
interfere for a period of twenty years. But the introduc- 
tion of the subject brought up a storm, as it was called by 
a member from Georgia, which lasted for days and even 



284 PART III. 1763-1797 

weeks, until the adoption of a committee's report tliat Con- 
gress had no authority over the shive trade, except with 
foreign countries, until 1808, the date prescrihed by the 
Constitution. At the same time, all pretensions to control 
the treatment or the emancipation of slaves, in the states 
where they existed, were expressly abjured by Congress. 
This did not prevent an earnest Delaware Quaker from 
petitioning some two or three years afterwards for the abo- 
lition of slavery. The petition was returned to the peti- 
tioner, (November, 1792.) A later memorial, (January, 
1794,) from a convention of societies for the abolition of 
slavery, held at Philadelphia, asking Congress to take such 
measures as the Constitution allowed against the slave 
trade, resulted in an act prohibiting the trade with foreign 
lands. So far as related to the slave trade, there seems to 
have been no opposition on the part of the Southern States 
to its suppression. They were all moving more or less 
actively in the same direction.* What they opposed was 
the interference of Congress with slavery within the limits 
of the country. 

. On this particular point the opposing theories of 

tenito- after years were not yet distinctly formed. But 
there was an evident foreboding of future divisions. 
It was generally agreed that Congress had no power in 
relation to slavery in the states. But it was generally 
urged on one side, and by no means generally repelled on 
the other, that the existence of slavery, as of any other sys- 
tem, in the territories, did depend upon Congress. There 
were the clauses of the Constitution — "The Congress 
shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules 
and regulations respecting, the territory or other property 



* The traffic was prohibited in all the states by 1798. South Carolina, 
however, revived it in 1834. 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 285 

belonging to the United States ;" " New states may be admit- 
ted by the Congress into this Union." On these the oppo- 
nents of slavery relied, as empowering Congress to exclude 
the system from any territories to be organized, or any 
states to be admitted. The great precedent of the North- 
west Territory, where slavery was expressly prohibited by 
the Congress of the Confederation, was ratified by the first 
Congress under the Constitution. It claimed — so the north- 
ern men felt — to be not only ratified, but followed. That it 
might be followed, was distinctly amongst the apprehensions 
of the southerners, the more naturally from its having been 
proposed by one of themselves, Thomas Jefferson, as we 
have read, to exclude slavery from all the unsettled territo- 
ries. When North Carolina ceded her western lands to tha 
Union, she did so on the express condition " that no regula- 
tion made or to be made by Congress shall tend to the 
emancipation of slaves," (1780.) 

Here was the starting point of all future strife, 
point of -^^ ^^'^^ ^^ ^^^ power of Congress to reject the pro- 
future posed condition on the ground that its authority 
over the territories was not thus to be trammelled. 
Or it might have taken exactly the opposite ground, and 
declared that it had no right to impose any conditions 
upon the territories. Supposing either position to have 
been taken permanently, the question of slavery in the ter- 
ritories might have come up again. But the constitutional 
principle on which it could be decided as often as it re- 
curred, would have been established. Of all this there 
seems to have been little or no perception. Not even 
AYashinjrton — he who was so fixed agrainst all sectional 
divisions — exerted himself to close this prolific source of 
bitterness and of contention. Congress accepted the cession 
of North Carolina, and organized the district as the Terri' 
tory South of the Ohio, (1790.) 



286 PART III. 1763-1797. 

I'residen- Meanwhile the unity of the country, despite its 
tjai tours, parties and its broils, had been happily illustrated 
in the tours of the president. He first visited the New 
England States, Rhode Island excepted,* (October, No- 
vember, 1789;) then Rhode Island, (August, 1790;) and, 
lastly, the Central and Southern States, (April-June, 
1791.) No earthly potentate had ever received such hom- 
age as the republican magistrate, the revolutionary chief, 
the Christian man, all blended in AVashington. It was a 
homage offered principally to the individual, but the light 
which shone about him was diffused over the nation of 
which he was the head and the representative. 
,,. , ^ The states had not been idle. They were learn- 

Work of •' 

the ing their new relations to the general government, 

and, through this, to one another. Within their 
own borders, much was to be done to set up the law that 
had been shaken and the order that had been disturbed for 
the ten, twenty, or even thirty years before. Many of the 
late Constitutions were remodelled, and some new ones 
were framed. 

New New states were presenting themselves for admis- 

Btates. gjQj^ jjj^Q ii^g j-j^g ^f ^Yie thirteen. The consent of 

New York having been obtained, Vermont was admitted, 
(March 4, 1791.) Provision was already made for the en- 
trance of Kentucky in the following year, (June 1, 1792.) 
The Territory South of the Ohio was subsequently admitted 
as the State of Tennessee, (June 1, 1796.) 

But the interest of the period was concentrated 

Depend- -r. i • . r ^ 

cnce upon o^ ^lic general government. By this, it was lelt, 
Washing- ^nd not by any local authorities or any local move- 
ments, the difficulties of the nation were to be met 
and overcome. The general government itself was concen- 

* Not then a member of the Union. 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 287 

trated in Washington. They who deny him power of char- 
acter, acknowledging his excellence and his judiciousness, 
without acknowledging his inspiration of thought and his 
energy of action, may turn to the group gathered at Phila- 
delphia, the capital, and see the eyes of their heroes, fed- 
eralist or republican, northerner or southerner, all fixed on 
Washington for protection, especially as the four years of 
his presidency drew to a close. Jefferson, the head of the 
republicans, wrote to him, " The confidence of the whole 
Union is centred in you. Your being at the helm will be 
more than an answer to every argument which can be used 
to alarm and lead the people in any quarter into violence or 
secession. North and south w^ill hang together, if they 
have you to hang on." " It is clear," wrote Hamilton, the 
leader of the federalists, "that a general and strenuous 
effort is making in every state to place the administration 
of the national government in the hands of its enemies, as 
if they were its safest guardians ; that the period of the 
next House of Representatives is Hkely to prove the 
crisis of its permanent character ; that, if you continue in 
office, nothing materially mischievous is to be apprehended 
— if you quit, much is to be dreaded." Randolph, the 
attorney general, — a sort of leader to a middle party, 
neither wholly federalist nor wholly republican, — was 
equally pressing. " The fuel," he wrote to Washington, 
" which has been already gathered for combustion, wanti 
no addition. But how awfully might it be increased, were 
the violence which is now suspended by a universal sub- 
mission to your pretensions let loose by your resignation I " 
Thus urged, Washington could do no less than accept the 
unanimous summons to another term of labor for his coun- 
try. Adams was again chosen vice president, (1792—93.) 

There was one thino- over M'hich Washin^^ton had no 
influence. The animosity of parties had spared him, but 



28.8 PART lU. 1763-1797. 

without beino; checked by him. He vainly exerted 

Animos- ^ "^ 

ity of par- hinisclf to keep the peace, even in his own cabinet. 
*'^^' Jefferson and HamiUon were at swords' points, and 
at swords' points they remained until Jefferson retired, 
(1794.) In Congress, all was uproar. The slightest ques- 
tion sufficed to set the northerner against the southerner, 
tlie federalist against the republican. Out of Congress, the 
tumult was increasing. Influences to which we must revert 
had swelled the dissensions of the nation with " very dif- 
ferent views," as Washington wrote, " some bad, and, if I 
might be allowed to use so harsh an expression, diabolical." 
A new party, chiefly from the republican ranks, had gath- 
ered, under the name of democrats, in societies of which 
the model was taken from abroad, and which, as Washing- 
ton wrote, might " shake the government to its foundation." 
The fearful passion of the time at length broke 

TnsurrGC" 

tion in out in insurrection. In consequence of the excise 
Pennsyi- ^pou domestic Spirits, some parts of the country 
where distillation was common had been greatly 
discontented. North Carolina and Pennsylvania, or rather 
the interior counties of those states, had been agitated to 
such a degree, that the president deemed it necessary to 
issue a proclamation, calling upon his fellow-citizens to 
support the laws, (1792.) The excitement gradually sub- 
sided, except in Pennsylvania, where, after various acts of 
violence, an armed convention, seven thousand strong, met 
at Braddock's Field, (August, 1794.) The president of 
this assembly was a Colonel Cook, the secretary, Albert 
Gallatin, a Swiss emigrant ; and the commander of the 
troops a lawyer named Bradford. Of course, the objects 
of so large a body were various ; some being intent merely— 
upon suspending the collection of the excise, while others 
meditated the possession of the country, and separation 
from the Union. The president at once put forth a procla- 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 289 

mation, " warning the insurgents to desist from their oppo- 
sition to the laws." Commissioners were at the same time 
appointed to proceed to the scene of disturbance, and per- 
suade the actors to return to their duty. It being found, 
however, that nothing but force, or the show of force, would 
put down the insurrection, another proclamation was pub- 
lished, announcing the march of fifteen thousand militia 
from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. 
The president himself took the field for a few days ; but 
finding that the insurgents had disappeared before the 
approach of his troops, he left his officers — General Henry 
Lee, governor of Virginia, being commander-in-chief — to 
complete the work that was no sooner begun than it was 
ended. A considerable number of prisoners was taken ; 
but no executions followed, (November.) Enough had 
been done to decide " the contest," as Washington described 
it, " whether a small proportion of the United States shall 
dictate to the whole Union." 

Indian The same year (1794) witnessed the suppression 

wars. of a danger, half domestic and half foreign — a 
long-continued Indian war. It broke out, four years before, 
on the attempt of various western tribes to recover the 
country as far as the Ohio. A thousand men, partly United 
States troops, and partly militia from Pennsylvania and 
Kentucky, were sent into the heart of the hostile region. 
Two detachments, under Colonel Hardin, fell into ambus- 
cades ; while the main body, under General Harmer, 
marched, countermarched, and at length retreated, (1790.) 
The next year, after several incursions of volunteers into 
the Indian territory, an army of some two thousand, under 
General St. Clair, started, late in the autumn, to reduce the 
enemy. Delayed by the construction of forts, the troops 
were advancing but slowly, when they were surprised in 
camp, and utterly routed by the Indians, (1791.) Two 
25 



290 PART III. 1763-1797. 

years passed in fruitless attempts at negotiation. An army 
of three or four thousand, slowly enlisted under the com- 
mand of General Wayne, the hero of Stony Point, at 
length proceeded to more decisive measures. Spending the 
winter and the spring in camp, Wayne took the field in tlie 
following summer. Securing his rear by forts along the 
route which he pursued, he overtook and completely van- 
(piished the Indians, driving them from their posts, and 
laying waste their fields, (1794.) A treaty made with 
Wayne a year afterwards (1795) renounced the claims 
which had led the unhappy Indians into war. There still 
remained upon the south-western borders the restless tribes 
that had taken up arms from time to time during the war 
with their brethren of the north-west. Peace with them 
was made a year later, (1796.) In both treaties, the United 
States took an attitude never before assumed by the whites, 
as a nation, towards the red man. The truth that the 
Indians were not the aggressors so much as the borderers, 
nay, the United States themselves, seems to have been 
tacitly recognized by the indemnities to the conquered or 
the pacified tribes. 

Indian It was equally new in the history of the Indian 

interests, j-acc, that the wliitc men should unite nationally in 
supplying their wants and improving their relations. No 
part of Washington's administration, domestic or foreign, 
was more original or more benign than the policy which he 
constantly urged towards the Indians of the United States. 
To save them from the frauds of traders, a national system 
of trade was adopted. To protect them from the aggres- 
sions of borderers, as well as to secure them in the rights 
allowed them by their treaties, a number of laws were pre- 
pared. " I add with pleasure," said the president in one 
of his later addresses, to Congress, '" that the probability of 
their civilization is not dimiriished by the experiments which 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 201 

have been thus far made under the auspices of government. 
The accompli.shment of this woik, if practicable, will reflect 
undecaying lustre on our national character, and administer 
the most grateful consolation that vu'tuous mmds can know," 
(December, 1795.) 

Among the agents employed by the administra- 
weider, tion in dealing with the Indians was a remarkable 
the mis- ^aan. John Ileckewelder, born in England, of 

sionary. . . , . 

German parentage, came to i^ennsylvania m his 
youth, and there in his early manhood became a missionary 
of the United Brethren, or Moravians, amongst tlie Dela- 
wares and the Mohegans, (1771.) His life thenceforward 
was devoted to the Indians. He preached to them, that 
they might be converted to God. He wrote of them, that 
they might be respected of men. " I still indulge the 
hope," he wrote in his old age, " that this work [for the 
Indians] will be accomplished by a wise and benevolent 
government." 

A far more savage foe than tlie Indian was 

Tribute ® 

to Ai- appeased at the same period, but with much less 
^'*'"'" credit, it must be added, to the nation. This was 
the Dey of Algiers, who, with a number of neighbors like 
himself, was wont to sweep the seas with piratical craft. 
Singular to say, the sway of these buccaneering potentates 
was acknowledged Ijy the European states, who paid an 
annual tribute on condition of tlieir commerce being spared. 
Ten years before the present date, the freebooters of the 
Dey of Algiers had captured two American vessels, and 
thrown their crews into bondage. He now (1795) consent- 
ed to release his captives, and to respect the merchantmen 
of the United States, on the reception of a triljute like that 
received from the powers of Europe. Three quarters of 
a million were paid down ; an annual payment of full 
fifty thousand dollars being promised in addition. Other 



292 PART III. 1763-1797. 

treaties of the same sort with Tripoli and Tunis were 

under way. 

^, . The rehitions of the United States with civilized 

Jc oi'oign 

relations, nations wcrc hardly more satisfactory. The mon- 
archies of Europe looked down, if they looked at all, upon 
the infant republic, of which many of them really knew 
almost nothing. What was of vast moment to a peoi)le 
rising out of depression and of obscurity, was a trille in the 
eyes of old states, accustomed to deal with great interests 
and with great resources. Their relations w^ith America 
were matters of little concern to them. On the other hand, 
the relations of America to them, or to some of them, 
formed the chief point of attention and of exertion with 
the American nation for a quarter of a century. 

We must oro back to days over which we have 

Commer- *=" *' 

ciai trea- passed, in order to see how the United States pre- 
*''^' sented themselves to the older nations. " Our 
fathei-s," said John Quincy Adams, himself a foreign min- 
ister under Washington, " extended the hand of friendship 
to every nation on the globe." Their first treaty, the one 
with France, in which the affairs of commerce and of peace 
were mingled with those of alliance and of war, was fol- 
lowed by one with Prussia, (1785.) "This," remarked 
Adams, " consecrated three fundamental principles of for- 
eign intercourse. First, equal reciprocity and the mutual 
stipulation of the commercial exchanges of peace ; second- 
ly, the abohtion of private war on the ocean ; and thirdly, 
restrictions fiivorable to neutral commerce upon belligerent 
parties with regard to contraband of war and blockades. 
These principles were assumed as cardinal points of the 
policy of the Union." It was a policy, however, in per- 
petual collision with the usages and prerogatives of the 
European powers ; so much so, that, though the young 
nation held out an open hand, it was met by contracted 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 293 

grasps. The state of things will appear as we go on to tlic 
negotiations of Washington's administration. 

Treat ^"^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ come into more settled rela- 

with tions with the new government was Spain. That 
power, through its colonial authorities in Florida, 
had been supposed to be tampering with the southern 
Indians. On the other hand, it was notorious that several 
expeditions from the southern and western frontiers were 
planned against the Spanish territory. All the while, the 
dividing line between Florida and the United States was 
unsettled, and the claim to the navigation of the Missis- 
sippi undetermined. Finally, a special envoy, Thomas 
Pinckney, was sent to Spain. It took him nearly a year 
to bring about a treaty defining the Florida boundary, 
and opening the Mississippi to the United States, (1795.) 
Even then the Spaniards delayed to fulfil provisions in 
which they took but small interest. 

The relations with Spain were bad enoudi. But 

Relations ^ ^ o 

with those with Great Britain and France were worse. 
Britain ^^^ must spcak of thcsc nations together, since it 
and was their common,, rather than their separate, influ- 
ences which operated to the extent that is to be 
described. Side by side, in the first place, were the feelings 
of amity to France and of animosity to Britain ; the seeds 
were planted in war, and their growth was not checked in 
peace. Britain continued to wear the aspect of an antago- 
nist, keeping her troops upon the United States territory 
until her demands were satisfied, while on the other side 
of the sea she laid one restraint after another upon com- 
merce, as if she would have kept the Americans at a 
distance from her shores. France, on the contrary, was 
still the friend of the rising nation, and not only as its 
patron, but as its follower. The same year that Washing- 
ton entered the presidency, the French revolution began. 
25* 



294: PART III. 1763-1797. 

Its early movements, professedly inspired by those tbat 
had taken place in America, kindled all the sympathies of 
American hearts. Hitherto, the bond between them and 
the French was one of gratitude and of dependence ; now 
it was one of sympathy and of equality. 

But we are not to imagine our fathers to have 

Parties f 

there- harmonized upon these points any more than upon 
^^°°* the others that have been noticed. The nation was 
by no means unanimous against Great Britain, by no means 
unanimous for France. Deep, indeed, but still in action, 
were the sentiments of former times when France was the 
foe, and Britain the mother-land. To these a new impulse 
was given by the early excesses of the revolution. With 
their ideas of law and order, the Americans could not go 
alono- with the French, rioters from the first, and soon 
destroyers and murderers, rather than freemen. Many 
paused, and turning with distrust from the scenes of which 
France was the unhappy theatre, looked with kinder emo- 
tions tow^ards the sedater and the wiser Britain. It would 
be too much to say that this led to a British party ; but it 
did lead to a neutral one, while, on the other hand, a 
French party, applauding the license as well as the liberty 
of the revolution, clapped their hands the more enthusiasti- 
cally as the spectacle became wilder and bloodier. This 
party was the republican ; its more impetuous members 
being the democratic republicans. Their opponents were 
the federalists. The new dissensions came just in time to 
keep up the division between the two. Mere federalist and 
republican questions might have waned ; they were already 
less glowing than they had been. They were revived by 
the strife of the French Avith the anti-French party. 

Few had spoken of doing more than looking on at the 
events in Europe. Yet there were some so excited, so 
maddened, as to be ready for any extremities, especially 



WASHINGTON'S AD]NUNISTHATION, 295 

Washing- "^^'^en the France whom they worsliipped declared 
ton pro- war against the Britain whom they abhorred. More 

claims t • i i i 

neutral- divided tJian ever, the nation was again close upon 
">'• the breakers, when Washington — never greater, 

never wiser — issued his proclamation of neutrality, mak- 
ing it known " that the duty and interest of tlie United 
States require that they should with sincerity and good faith 
adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial towards 
tlie belligerent powers." (April 22, 1793.) It is a memo- 
rable act in our history. 

roint Its purpose is not always rightly estimated. 

proposed, j^qq^ .^^ {[^q nation tasked to its utmost, one may 
almost say, to subdue a few^ Indian tribes, obliged to \Kiy 
tribute to the Algerines, unable to keep the Spaniards to 
their obligations, and we shall not behold a power that could 
enter safely into European wars. If such a thing were 
attempted, it would be at the hazard of the independence 
that had been achieved. There were two risks ; one aris- 
ing from the certainty that the United States must be a 
subordinate ally in any war to which it became a party ; 
aiid the other, — a still graver one, — that the passions 
aroused by a foreign would find no vent but in a civil war. 
It was, as he said, " to keep the United States free," that 
Washington proclaimed neutrality. 

Mission The system was soon put to trial. France, hav- 
of Genet, jj^g baptized herself a republic in the blood of her 
king, Louis XVI., sent a new minister to the United States 
in the perr?on of citizen Genet. An enthusiastic represen- 
tative of his nation. Genet excited a fresh enthusiasm in 
tiic Fren(!h party of America. Feasted at Charleston, 
where he landed, (April, 1793,) and at all the principal 
places on the route northward, he was led to imagine the 
entire country at his feet, or at those of the French repub- 
lic. He began at Charleston to send out privateers, and to 



296 PART III. 1763-1797. 

order that their prizes should be tried and condemned by 
the French consuls in the United States. It was a part of 
the treaty of commerce between the two nations, that the 
privateers and prizes of the French should be admitted to 
the American ports. But Genet was soon to be checked. 
He had not merely a divided people to deal with, but a 
government ; and although the government itself had its 
divisions, it was so far accordant as to oppose the ambassa- 
dor, to whom, on his arrival at Philadelphia, it stood ready 
to declare that M'iiatever the treaty provided for, it did not 
provide for the commission of privateers or the condem- 
nation of prizes within American limits. This is not the 
place to describe the proceedings of so wild a personage 
as Genet. He did battle for his privateers and his 
courts ; appealed from the executive to Congress and 
the people ; and pursued so extreme a course as to set his 
supporters and his opponents bitterly at variance. The 
French party now went openly for war against England. 
'" Marat, Robespierre, Brissot, and the Mountain," says Vice 
President Adams, " were the constant themes of panegyric 
and the daily toasts at table. . . . Washington's house 
was surrounded by an innumerable multitude from day to 
day, huzzaing, demanding war against Englrnd, cursing 
Washington, and crying, ' Success to the French patriots 
and virtuous republicans.' Frederic A. Muhlenberg, the 
speaker of the House of Representatives, toasted publicly, 
'The Mountain : may it be a pyramid that shall reach the 
skies.' " " I had rather be in my grave," exclaimed Wash- 
ington one day in great excitement, " than in my present 
situation." He was equal, however, and more than equal, 
to his duty and, supported by his cabinet, he sent to request 
the recall of Genet, (August.) As the party by which 
Genet had been commissioned had sunk to ruin, their suc- 
cessors readily appointed a minister of their own — citizen 
Fauchet. 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 297 

Great I^^t the troubles of the time were too compli- 

Britain cated to be reached by a mere chanjjre of ministers. 

an(i ^ ^ ^ 

France France had pronounced against the ueutrahtj of 
^** ^ America, — not, indeed, bj direct menace or vio- 
neiitrai- lence, but by ordering that neutral vessels, contain- 
* ^' ing goods belonging to her enemies, should be cap- 

tured, (May 1, 1793.) An embargo was then laid ujxhj 
the shipping at Bordeaux. Both thesxj measures were 
decided violations of the treaty with America. The most 
that France did, however, was as nothing compared with 
the extremes to which her chief enemy. Great Britain, 
resorted. France had ordered that the goods of an enemy 
were liable to capture. Great Britain now ordered that 
the goods of a neutral power, if consisting of j^rovisions 
for the enemy, were to be captured or bought up, unless 
shipped to a friendly port, (June.) This was followed 
hj an order that all vessels laden with the produce of a 
French colony, or with supplies for the same, were law- 
ful prizes, (November ;) a decree so arbitrary that it was 
soon modified by the nation that issued it, (January, 1794) 
Worse than all, Great Britain claimed the right to impress 
into her service every seaman of British birth, wherever 
iie miglit be found ; so that the ships of the United States 
would be stopped, searched, and stripped of their crews, 
at the pleasure of the British cruisers. It often hap- 
pened that American sailors, as w^ell as British, were the 
victims of this impressment. A thrill of indignation and 
of defiance against such proceedings ran through the 
Americans- They would have been less than freemen, 
less, even, than men, to have borne with such injuries in 
silence- 
Threat- ^-^^ coursB of Great Britain is easily explained. 

^-ned war 

ivith Its rulers regarded the United States merely as a 
^^l^- commercial people who were contributing to the 



298 PART III. 1763-1797. 

resources of the enemy. Did they look upon the nation 
in any political light, they felt sure — thus Washington 
was informed from London — " that there was a party so 
decidedly in the British sentiment that bearing and forbear- 
ing would be carried to any length." But they were mis- 
taken. The very party most opposed to France were 
earnest in sustaining the necessity of preparations for war, 
defensive, indeed, but still war w^ith Great Britain. A 
temporary embargo upon the American ports was voted by 
Congress, for the purpose of suspending commercial inter- 
course, (March, 1794.) The House of Representatives 
passed an act prohibiting all trade with Great Britain and 
her colonies, until she redressed the wrongs which she had 
perpetrated ; the act would have passed the Senate like- 
wise, but for the casting vote of the vice president, (April.) 
The partisans of the^ French were all alive for further- 
action ; their opponents were hai'dly prepared 'to resist it. 
One step on the part of the executive, one hint that Wash- 
ington, the still trusted though still slandered magistrate, 
was in favor of arming, and the nation would have armed. 
With Great Britain, in all her might, for a foe, and with 
France, in all her blood-red despotism, for an ally,, what 
would have been the war I 

Mission One of Wasliinglon^s secretaries, Jefferson, had 
of Jay. lately resigned his post, leaving his personal as well 
as political opponent, Hamilton, the head of the cabinet. 
To him, as the most eminent member of the administration, 
the president would have confided tke special mission wliicli 
it was propoi^ed to send to Great Britain. But Hamilton, 
as an extreme federalist, was too unacceptable to. the great 
body of Congi'ess and of the nation to be employed upon a 
service which of itself was an object of general distrust and 
aversion. Washington therefore selected Chief Justice Jay, 
(April, 1794.) It was a fitting choice, far more so than 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 29 D 

that of Hamilton. The secretary ^YOuld have been the rep- 
resentative, not of the nation alone, but of the party which 
acknowledged him as its leader ; he was always a party 
man, whether in office or out of office. But the chief jus- 
tice, though a federalist, was no partisan. Amongst all the 
prominent figures of the time. Jay's is almost, perhaps alto- 
gether, the only one that stands close to Washington's, aloof 
from the tarnishes and the collisions of opposing parties. 
No other man was so fit to join with Washington in rescu- 
ing the nation from its present perils. 

His Accordingly, Jay j^roceeded to England, and, 

treaty, after some months of anxious diplomacy, obtained a 
treaty, (November.) It was not much to obtain. The 
United States agreeing to indemnify their British creditors. 
Great Britain consented to surrender the posts which she 
had so long held in the west.* She also promised indem- 
nity to the sufferers from her system of search and of cap- 
ture ; yet the system itself, though partially modified, was by 
no means renounced. A few concessions to the claims of 
American commerce were also made ; but the rigid policy 
of Britain, especially hi relation to her colonial trade, wa^ 
strongly maintained. In short, the treaty did not acknowl- 
edge the rights of the Americans as neutrals, or their |)rivi- 
leges as traders ; both m.atters of tlie highest importance to 
their commercial interests. At the same time, the earlier 
points of controversy were determined, and from the later 
ones the sting was taken away, at least in some degree. So 
Jay thought, so Washington, though neither considered the 
treaty decidedly satisfactory. It was better, at any rate, 
they reasoned, than war. Thus, too, reasoned the Senate, 
who, convened in special session, advised the ratification of 
the treaty, (June, 1795.) 

* The surrender to take effect June 1, 1796. 



300 PART III. 1763-1797. 

Opi'osv ^ot thus, lioAvever, the nation. If the necessity 
tiou. Qf ^j^g treaty, even as it stood, needed to be proved, 
the proof was the general insanity which it provoked. 
Meetings were held every where ; liarangues were made, 
resolutions passed; copies of the treaty were destroyed; Jay 
was burned in ef^^y. The French and the American flags 
Avaved together over these scenes ; while the British ensign 
was dragged through the dirt and burned before the doors 
of the British representatives. 

Eatifica- ^^^ ^his, and more, if intended to intimidate gov- 
tion. ernment, had a precisely contrary effect. " I have 
never," wrote Washington, " since I have been in the ad- 
ministration of the government, seen a crisis which is preg- 
nant with more interesting events, nor one from which 
more is to be apprehended." " Did the treaty with Great 
Britain," he asked afterwards, " surrender any right of 
Avhich the United States had been in possession ? Did it 
make any change or alteration in the law of nations, under 
M'hich Great Britain had acted in defiance of all tlie powers 
of Europe ? If none of these, why all tliis farrago ? " The 
French party were of course the active leaders in all dis- 
turbances. Their antagonists, certainly not a British party 
now, kept themselves in the background at first, but pres- 
ently rallied, not as a British, or even as an anti-French, so 
much as an American party, to the support of the presi- 
dent, assuring him and his government of the unabated con- 
fidence of the nation. At the same time, Jefferson's succes- 
sor, Randolph, being suspected of intrigue with the French 
minister, resigned his office, and in the reaction tlius excited 
against the influence and the partisanship of France, the 
cabinet advised the ratification of the British treaty. It 
was done, (August.) 

Coiitiniied Opposition continued. Tlie Virginian legisla- 
opposition. ^^^Y^.^ approving the stand of their senators against 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 301 

the treaty, refused to pass a vote of undiminished confidence 
in the president. If Virginia could thus turn away from 
the son to whom she had hitherto clung with all a mother's 
pride, the tone in other states may be conceived to have 
been even more expressive of disapprobation. But Vir- 
ginia was strongly republican and strongly French, conse- 
quently strongly anti-British. So far did the legislature go 
in its wrath, as to propose an amendment of the Constitu- 
tion, to the effect of requiring the assent of the House of 
Representatives before a treaty could be ratified, (Novem- 
ber.) The example of Virginia was imitated even in Con- 
gress, where the phrase of '' undiminished confidence " was 
stricken from an address of the house to the president, 
(December.) As the session progressed, a fierce struggle 
arose with respect to the bills for carrying out the British 
treaty. The opponents of the treaty made it their first 
effort to obtain the papers relating to the transaction, on the 
plea that it lay with the House to consent or to refuse to ex- 
ecute the provisions of the treaty. A three weeks' debate 
terminated in a call upon the president for the specified 
documents. He and his cabinet being alike of opinion that 
the House had transgressed its powers, the call was refused. 
The House took the denial with a better grace than might 
have been anticipated ; the leaders of the opposition now 
throwing their whole weight upon the point of defeating the 
bills on which the execution of the treaty depended. Nor 
was it until after a fortnight's debate, in which Fisher 
Ames distiuij-uished himself above all his colleagues in 
defending the treaty, that a vote, by a bare majority, deter- 
mined that the House would proceed to its duty, (March, 
April, 1796.) By this time the frenzy out of doors had 
died away. 

The point Thus terminated the great event of Washington's 
gained, administration. Its course, so far as he was con- 
26 



802 PART III. 1763-1797. 

cerned, followed precisely the principles with which he had 
entered office. In face of the parties that divided the 
country, in face of their feelings and their relations to Great 
Britain and France, Washington saw but one alternative — 
peace or war. And not peace or Avar vrith the stranger 
alone, but between citizen and citizen. Enough has been 
already said on the interests and the dangers involved in 
the decision. The proclamation of neutrality was the first 
decisive step, the treaty with Great Britain was the second, 
and, for the present, the last. The point thus gained may 
be called the starting point of the infant nation in its foreign 
relations. But hear Washington himself : " My ardent de- 
sire is, and my aim has been, to keep the United States 
free from political connections with every other country, to 
see them independent of all and under the influence of none. 
In a word, I want an American character, that the powers 
of Europe may be convinced we act for ourselves, and not 
for others. This, in my judgment, is the only way to be 
respected abroad and happy at home ; and not, by becoming 
the partisans of Great Britain or France, create dissensions, 
disturb the public tranquillity, and destroy, perhaps for- 
ever, the cement which binds the Union." 
Conti d Things were far, however, from going smoothly, 
embarrass- What Washington wrote a few months before was 
frorn^ still true: "This government, in relation to France 
abroad. ^^^ England, may be compared to a ship between 
the rocks of Scylla and Charybdis." The treaty being rat- 
ified, Charybdis was avoided. But Scylla ro:se the more 
frowningly. If the French party of the United States, if 
the minister of the United States to France, James Mon- 
roe, were indignant at the British treaty, it was but naturrJ 
that France should be the same. The French government 
announced to Mr. Monroe that they considered their alli- 
ance with the United States to be at an end, (Febmary, 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 303 

1796.) The chief reason was the treaty with Great 
Ijrirain ; but the list of grievances, then and afterwards 
liiled out, comprehended all the measures by which Ameri- 
can neutrality had been sustained. To prove that they 
Avere in earnest, the authorities of France, in addition to 
their previous orders of capiure and embargo, decreed 
that neutral vessels were to be treated exactly as they were 
treated by the British ; that is, stopped, searched, and 
seized upon the seas, (July.) This was subsequently made 
known to the United States by a communication from the 
French envoy, Adet, (October,) who improved the oppor- 
tunity by appealing to the people to take part with France 
and against Great Britain, (November.) To restore mat- 
ters, as far as possible, to a better position, Washington had 
sent out Charles C. Pinckney as minister to France, in the 
place of Monroe, (September.) But the clouds that had 
been dissipated on the side of Great Britain were more 
than replaced by the ominous signs in the direction of 
France. 

And at It was still worse at home. The parties — north- 
home. gj.jj ^j^j southern, federalist and republican, anti- 
French and French — that racked the nation were never 
so much agitated. -" Until within the last year or two," 
wrote Washington, " I had no idea that parties would, 
or even could, go to the length I have been witness to." 
Congress was a continual battle ground. The federalist 
party, falling into the minority in the House, and in danger 
of losing their majority in the Senate, fought, it may be 
literally said, on one side ; their opponents, the republicans, 
animated with the hope of the superiority, being equally 
pugnacious on the other. Ne\A^papers, especially those 
published at Philadelphia, carried the hostile notes from 
Congress to the nation, and echoed them back to Congress. 
It is difficult, without having room for extracts, to convey 



304 TAllT III. 1763-1797. 

any idea of the virulence of political writing at the tima 
Statesmanship disappears in partisanship, the love of coun- 
try in the hatred of countrymen. All this, while it demon- 
strated the wisdom of the administration or of its head, 
rendered the course of the administration doubtful and 
imperilled. In fact, both the administration and its head 
were objects of the fiercest assault. 

Washington wrote with natural indijmation of 

Abuse of o o 

Washing- the abuse which he, " no party man," as he truly 
called himself, had received, " and that, too, in such 
exaggerated and indecent terms as could scarcely be applied 
to a Nero, a notorious defaulter, or even to a common pick- 
pocket." It was amidst these outrages that Wasliington 
sent forth his Farewell Address to the people of the United 
States, (September 17, 1796.) Soon afterwards, Congi-ess 
came together, and showed that many of its members were 
violent against the retiring president. On the proposal of 
an address of grateful acknowledgments from the House 
of Representatives, a man from Washington's own state, 
William B. Giles, of Virginia, took exception to the more 
expressive passages, saying, " If I stand alone in the opin- 
ion, I will declare that I am not convinced that the admin- 
istration of the government for these six years has been 
wise and firm. I do not regi'ct the president's retiring 
from office." Giles was not alone. The same attitude was 
taken by a considerable number, and amongst them Andrew 
Jackson, of Tennessee, (December.) " Although he is 
soon to become a private citizen," wrote Washington of 
himself, (January, 1797,) "his opinions are to be knocked 
down, and his character reduced as low as they are capable 
of sinking it." Two months later, in the last houi-s of his 
administration, he said, " To the wearied traveller, who sees 
a resting place, and is bending his body to lean thereon, I 
now compare myself ; but to be suffered to do this in peace, 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 305 

ia too mucli lo be endured by some." If* Was]iinn;(on could 
thus excite animosity and wrong, what nujst it hav(! been 
with ordinary men ? The country seemed unvviliiiig to be 
pacified, unwilling to be saved. 

Washington retired. He had done even greater 

llotiru- I 1 1 /• 1 

imiitof thmgs at the head of the government than he had 
Washing- (|y^j(. j^i ^|j(, |j(,.^(| q|- jJj(3 army. But it was beyond 

his power to change the character of the nation. 
He lefl it as he found it — divided and impassioned. Yet 
he left it as lie had not found it — with a Constitution in 
operation, with j)rinciples and with laws in action — on 
tlu; road to increase and to maturity. " I can never be- 
lieve," wQvo, almost his last words as president, " that Prov- 
idence, which has guided us so long, and through such a 
labyrinth, will withdraw its protection at this crisis." The 
day after writing this, he saw his successor, John Adams, 
inaugurated, (March 4, 1797.) 

One who had hailed the administration at its 

Lafayette. 

beginning was not amongst those to behold its 
close. Lafayette was a prisoner at OlmiJtz, under the 
})Owcr of Austria. J>ut he was not forgotten. Jt is i-cfresh- 
iug amidst the angry chaos of foreign controversies and of 
domestic struggles, to encounter Wasiiington, not as the 
president, but as the American, writing his " private lettc^r," 
as he termed it, to the Emperor of Germany, " to recom- 
mend Lafayette to the mediation of humanity," and " to 
entreat that he may be permitted to conu; to this country," 
(May, 17DG.) The effect of the appeal is not known ; but 
Lafayette was liberated not long afterwards. 
26 * 



PART IV. 



UNION. 



1797-1872. 



(307) 



CHAPTER I. 
. Party Administrations. 

Parties in WASHINGTON'S administration was our only real- 
power, ij national one. The administrations of his suc- 
cessors were those of parties rather than of presidents. 
With John Adams (1797) the federalists were in power; 
with Thomas Jefferson (1801) and James Madison (1809) 
the republicans. The struggles of these parties upon 
questions of domestic and foreign policy make up our his- 
tory for the next twenty years. 

Missions -A-t the outset, the relations with France occupy 
to France, ^j^g foreground. Charles C. Pinckney, accredited 
by Washington to negotiate with the French government, 
was refused an audience at Paris ; and not only that, but 
was ordered to depart the French territory, (December, 
1796 — February, 1797.) Notwithstanding this, notwith- 
standing the rapidly following decrees against American 
ships and American crews, President Adams sent out a 
new mission, consisting of Pinckney, John Marshall, and 
Elbridge Gerry, with moderate instructions, which, how- 
ever, availed nothing. Pinckney and Marshall, incensed 
by the intrigue as well as the insolence of which they were 
the objects, (October, 1797 — April, 1798,) shook off the 
dust of France from their feet, being followed in a few 
months by Gerry, who had undertaken to do alone what 
he had not been able to do with his colleagues. 

(309) 



310 PART ly. 1797-1872. 

Before the witlidrawal of Pinckney and Mar- 
Arming , ,, , . IT n ^ • 111 

of the sliall, the intelligence oi their treatment had thrown 
United ^i^q United States into a great excitement. The re- 
publicans taunted their opponents with the failure 
which they said they had predicted for the French missions. 
All the more bitter "wore the federalists, who inveighed 
against the venality of the French government, some even 
going so far as to call for a declaration of war. The presi- 
dent leaned to the side of his party. He had no mind to 
declare war, but he recommended Congress to put the 
country in a state of defence, (March, 1798.) The recom- 
mendation was at once opposed by the republican leaders. 
According to Vice President Jefferson, indeed, the president 
was aiming at a dissolution of the Union or at the establish- 
ment of a monarchical government. But the federalists 
upheld the president, and carried a series of measures pro- 
viding for the organization of a provisional army, as well 
as of a naval department, by which the existing navy might 
be more efficiently managed, (May.) Orders were issued, 
directing the national ships to seize all armed vessels 
engaged in hostile acts against American shipping ; while 
merchantmen were authorized to arm themselves, and 
capture their assailants upon the seas. But to prevent 
hostilities, as far as possible, commercial intercourse with 
France and her colonies was formally prohibited, (June.) 
Soon after, Washington was appointed to the command 
of the provisional army, (July.) The United States were 
fairly in arms. 

"War followed at sea. No declaration was made : 
War. , 1 T , . 

the most that was done being to proclaim the trea- 
ties with France void, and then to authorize the president 
to send out national and to commission private vessels for 
the purpose of capturing any armed ships of the French, 
whether participating or not in hostilities, (July.) The 



PARTY ADMINISTRATIONS 311 

seas were at once overrun with American ships, by which 
the French privateers were taken or driven from the coast. 
Ko actual engagement between national vessels, however, 
occurred, until the beginning of the following year, when 
Commander Truxtun, in the Constellation, forced the 
French frigate L'lnsurgente to strike, (February, 1700.) 
Hostilities were continued chiefly by privateers, the profits 
to Avhose owners were the principal results of the war. 
Still it pleased the party by whom it was favored. " A 
glorious and triumphant war it was ! " exclaimed Adams, 
in after years. " The proud pavilion of France was 
humiliated." 

strain -^"^ against the deeds of battle must be set the 

upon the measures of government which disclose the real 
strain upon the nation. To provide ways and 
means, stamp duties and taxes on houses and slaves were 
voted, besides the loans that were procured. To keep 
down party opposition, alien and sedition acts, as they were 
called, were passed. The first authorized the president to 
banish all aliens suspected of conspiracy against the United 
States. This was more of a party manoeuvre than appears 
on the face of it ; inasmuch as many of the most ardent 
spirits among the republicans, especially the democratic re- 
publicans, were aliens. The sedition act denounced fine 
and imprisonment upon all conspiracies, and even all pub- 
lications, " with intent to excite any unlawful combination 
for opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or 
any lawful act of the president." It was at midsummer 
that party spirit rose so- high as to demand and to enact 
these urgent laws, (June — July, 1708.) Both of them 
however, were to be but temporary.* The alien act was 



* The alien to be in force for two years, the sedition until March 4, 
1801, the cud of Adaias's admiuistration. 



312 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

never put in operation. But the sedition act was again 
and again enforced, and almost, if not altogether, invaria- 
bly upon party grounds. It may safely be said that the 
nation was straining itself too far. 

NuUifi- "i^o thought the party opposing the administration 
cation, ^nd the war. Strongest in the south and in the 
west, the republican leaders threw down the gauntlet to 
their opponents, nay, even to their rulers. The legislature 
of Kentucky, in resolutions drawn up for that body by no 
less a person than Vice President Jefferson, declared the 
alien and sedition laws " not law, but altogether void and 
of no force," (November, 1798.) The note thus sounded 
was taken up in the Virginia legislature, whose resolutions, 
draughted by James Madison, declared the obnoxious laws 
" palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitution," 
(December.) Both sets of resolutions, as they came from 
the hands of their framers, were stronger still. Jefferson 
had written, " Where powers are assumed which have not 
been delegated, a nullification of the act is the right remedy, 
and every state has a natural right, in cases not within 
the compact, [the Constitution,] to nullify of their own 
authority all assumptions of power by others within their 
limits." Madison, after stating " that in case of a deliber- 
ate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers not 
granted by the compact, the states, who are the parties 
thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to inter- 
pose for correcting the progress of the evil, and for main- 
taining within their respective limits the authorities, rights, 
and liberties appertaining to them," had made his resolu- 
tions declare the acts in question " null, void, and of no 
force or effect." But it was an early day for nullification ; 
and neither Kentucky nor Virginia went the length pre- 
scribed for them. They went far enough, as has been seen, 
to excite very general opposition from their sister states, 



PARTY ADMINISTRATIONS. 313 

especially those of the centre and the north, where legisla- 
ture after legislature came out with strong and denuncia- 
tory denials of the right of any state to sit in judgment 
upon the national government. 
. ^, Thinofs were in this seethinsr state, when the 

Another ^ & 7 

mission president nominated as minister to France Wil- 
^^"^'^'liara Vans Murray, to whom he afterwards joined 
Oliver Ellsworth, then chief justice, and William R. Davie, 
as colleagues, (February, 1799.) The reason assigned for 
a fresh attempt at negotiation was the assurance that had 
been received through the minister at the Hague, of the 
willino"ness of the French fjovernment to treat with a new 
mission. The din upon these nominations was tremendous, 
particularly among the more active federalists, and even 
the principal members of the cabinet, Timothy Pickering 
and Oliver Wolcott. The president was suspected of urg- 
ing the mission, in some degree, out of spite against the 
federalist party, by whom, or by whose extreme members, 
he considered himself badly used. " The British faction," 
he wrote afterwards, " was determined to have a war with 
France, and Alexander Hamilton at the head of the army, 
and then president of the United States. Peace with 
France was therefore treason." The envoys reached their 
destination in the beginning of the following year, (1800.) 
They found Napoleon Bonaparte first consul. With his 
government, after some difficulty, they concluded a con- 
vention, providing in part for mutual redress, but leaving 
many of the questions between the two nations for future 
settlement, (October.) When brought before the Senate 
of the United States, the convention was modified by can- 
celling the provision for additional negotiations. This was 
assented to in France, on condition that the claims for 
indemnities on either side should be abandoned. The 
effect was soon seen in claims for French spoliations pre- 
27 



314 PART IT. 1797-1872. 

seated to the government of the United States. But the 
treaty sufficed to restore peace. 

Mississippi Important events had occurred at home. The 
Territory: Mississippi Territory was formed, including at 

slavery 

under de- first the lower part of the present Alabama and 
bate. Mississippi, (1798.) This organization excited 

a debate concerning slavery, which, as the organizing act 
provided, was not to be prohibited in the territory. Here 
was no such plea as had existed in the case of the Ter- 
ritory South of the Ohio. No cession from a state, no 
conditions laid any restraint upon Congress. Yet but 
twelve votes were given in favor of an amendment pro- 
posed by George Thacher, of Massachusetts, prohibiting 
the introduction of slavery into the territory. The most 
that Congress would agree to, was to forbid the importa- 
tion of slaves from abroad ; a concession, inasmuch as the 
slave trade, it will be remembered, was still allowed by the 
Constitution. So, for the second time, and this time with- 
out its being required by terms with any state,* the de- 
cision of the national government was given in favor of 
slavery. 

But Congress took the other side, likewise. The 

Territory 

of ludiaua: western portion of the North-west Territory soon 
slavery needed to be set off as the Territory of Indiana, 

again. •' ' 

embracing the present Indiana, Illinois, and 
Michigan, (1800.) There slavery was already prohibited. 
But this went against the interests of the inhabitants, as 
they thought, and they petitioned Congress, within three 
and again within seven years after the organization of the 

* The part of the territory at this time organized was claimed by the 
United States as a portion of the old Florida domain. Georgia likewise 
claimed it as hers ; and when she surrendered what was allowed to be 
hers, that is, the upper part of the present Alabama and Mississippi, she 
made it a condition that slavery should not be prohibited, (1802.) 



PARTY ADMINISTRATIONS. 315 

territory, to be allowed to introduce slaves amongst them. 
Once a committee of Congress reported adversely ; but 
twice a report was made in favor of the petition. Re- 
ports and petitions, however, were alike fruitless. Con- 
gress would not authorize slavery where it had been 
prohibited. 

Death of -^^ domestic event compared in interest with 
Washing- the death of Washington, which occurred unex- 
pectedly on the 14th of December, 1791). His 
last service had been the organization of the provisional 
army against France, of which one can hardly say that it 
was the crowning act of such a life. Party passions ran 
so high as to affect the serenity of his declining years, and 
it may not have been too soon for his peace or his fame 
that he was taken away. Beside his grave, his country- 
men stood united for a moment, but no longer. 
Fall of the '^^^® presidential election of 1800 reduced the 
federal- federalists to a hopeless minority. They had 
done more for the country than for themselves. 
During Washington's administration, they had sustained 
his great measures, and originated great measures of their 
own ; but during Adams's, they had spent their strength 
in quarrelling with him or among themselves, and his 
defeat and theirs followed almost of course. Their fall 
was their own work, rather than that of their opponents. 
They had started as the more aristocratic party of the two, 
and every year had developed a distrust of the people which 
was sure to overthrow them at no distant day. The 
daughter of one of their most amiable and eminent leaders, 
Theodore Sedgwick, tells us that her father habitually 
spoke of the people as " Jacobins and miscreants," and he 
was by no means singular in his expressions. It seems 
strange that the party which may be said to have founded 
our government was not able to administer it ; but the very 



316 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

characteristics which fitted it to do the one work may have 
unfitted it to do the other. As between Adams and Jeffer- 
son, personally, there is no such comparison to be made as 
may be drawn between their parties. Both were identified 
with the independence and the organization of the nation, 
and both were qualified in the highest degree for its chief 
magistracy. 

. . Theoretically, the federalists had ffone for in- 
tion of creasing the authority of the general government, 
ouisiana. ^^j^-jg ^^iq republicans had made a stand to check it. 
But the chief measure of Jefferson's administration implied 
a readiness to stretch the powers of the government, and 
particularly of the executive branch, far beyond federalist 
theories. This was the acquisition of Louisiana, by which 
we are to understand, not the present state, but a region 
extending indefinitely to the west and north on the farther 
side of the Mississippi. Spain had acquired this territory 
from France in 1763 ; she restored it to France in 1800. 
Before the Spanish authorities withdrew, they excluded 
the citizens of the United States from New Orleans as a 
depot for the commerce of their western states, and France 
was credited with entertaining the same unfavorable de- 
signs. It was proposed in the United States Senate to 
seize New Orleans ; but this was too extreme a course. 
Left to his own counsels, the president instructed the envoys 
to France, Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe, to 
purchase the part of Louisiana which included New Or- 
leans ; but finding the French government disposed to sell 
the whole, they bought the whole for fifteen millions of 
dollars, (April 30, 1803.) Jefi^erson allowed this to be 
*' an act beyond the Constitution," and hinted at a con- 
stitutional amendment which should justify it. The great 
importance of the acquisition, securing the Mississippi to 
its mouth, and freeing the western territory from all possi- 



PARTY ADMINISTRATIONS. 317 

ble interference from France or Spain, was a convincing 
argument, and the Senate confirmed the negotiation, 
(October 20.) The chief argument that might have been 
brought against it was the extension of shivery by the 
annexation of foreign territory containing upwards of fifty 
thousand skives, and open to fifty times as many in the 
future ; but tliis was hardly touched. The federalists op- 
posed the purchase simply as a republican measure, aud as 
the republicans themselves were divided upon it, party 
bitterness was intensified. 

The immense region thus acquired was divided 
tion of iiito two portions, (1804.) The southern, in which 
Louisiana ^j] ^]^g settlements of any importance were included, 

territories. 

was called the Territory of Orleans. It compre- 
hended the present State of Louisiana, but with very indefi- 
nite boundaries on the west. North of this lay the District 
of Louisiana, embracing the present Arkansas and Mis- 
souri, with as much more as could be brought within its 
elastic limits on the north and west, its principal settlement 
being St. Louis. This district was made a part of the same 
jurisdiction with the Indiana Territory, from which, how- 
ever, it was soon detached, (1805.) At the same time, the 
provisions for the Territory of Orleans, complained of by 
some of the inhabitants, were rendered more liberal. The 
terms of the treaty concluding the purchase had been these : 
" The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorpo- 
rated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as 
soon as possible, according to the principles of the federal 
Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, 
and immunities of citizens of the United States ; and in the 
mean time shall be maintained and protected in the free 
enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the religion which 
they profess." Treaties of this kind were not every- day 
27* 



318 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

occurrences with Napoleon. But the inhabitants for whom 
he required this pledge were only a part, and a small part, 
of the Louisianiaus ; he did not interfere in behalf of their 
fifty thousand slaves. 
^ , , The new State of Ohio was already admitted to 

Other ter- •' 

ritoriai the Union, (November 29, 1802.) New territo- 
or'aniza- I'i^s — Michigan (1805) and Illinois (1809) — 
tions. were subsequently formed from out of the Indiana 
Territory. The signs of expansion were written every 
where, but nowhere so strikingly as along the western 
plains. 

Burr's There they were such as to kindle projects of a 

projects, j^g^y empire. Aaron Burr, vice president during 
Jefferson's first term, but displaced in the second term by 
George Clinton, (1805,) — branded, too, with the recent 
murder of Alexander Hamilton in a duel, — was generally 
avoided amongst his old associates. Turning his face west- 
ward, he there drew into his net various men, some of posi- 
tion and some of obscurity, with whose aid he seems to have 
intended making himself master of the Mississippi valley, or 
of Mexico, one or both, (1806.) Whatever his schemes 
were, they miscarried. A handful only of followers were 
gathered round him on the banks of the Mississippi, a 
hundred miles or more above New Orleans, when he sur- 
rendered himself to the government of the Mississippi Ter- 
ritory, (January, 1807.) vSome months afterwards he was 
brou2;ht to trial for hi2:h treason before Chief Justice Mar- 
shall, of the Supreme Court, with whom sat the district 
judge for Virginia ; the reason for trying Burr in that state 
being the fact that one of the places where he was charged 
with having organized a military expedition was within 
the Virginian limits. The trial, like every thing else in 
those days, Avas made a party question ; the administration 
and its supporters going strongly against Burr, while its 



PARTY ADMINISTRATIONS. 319 

opponents were disposed to take his part. He was acquit- 
ted for want of proof; and for the same reason he was 
again acquitted when tried for undertaking to invade the 
Spanish territories. 

Frowning high ahove all these domestic dangers 

Difficul- , r ^ 1 , • , , ' • . 

ties with "^^^^re thosG from abroad which sank m one direc- 
CiT<?at tion only to rise the more threateningly in another. 

Britain, y-. t-» • • t • 

(jrreat Britain was now extending impressment even 
to the American navy, whose vessels were once and 
aga-in plundered of their seamen by British men-of-war. 
Another subject on which Great Britain set herself against 
the claims of the United States, was the neutral trade, of 
which the latter nation engrossed a large and constantly 
increasing share during the European wars. France Avas 
equally adverse to American commerce. If Great Britain 
led off by declaring the French ports, from Brest to the 
Elbe, closed to American as to all other shipping, (May 
16, 1806,) France retorted by the Berlin decree, so called 
because issued from Prussia, prohibiting any commerce 
with Great Britain, (November 21.) That power im- 
mediately forbade the coasting trade between one port and 
another in the possession of her enemies, (January 7, 
1807.) Not satisfied with this, she went on to forbid all 
trade v,hatsoever with France and her allies, except on 
payment of a tribute to Great Britain, each vessel to pay 
in proportion to its cargo, (November 11.) Then fol- 
lowed the Milan decree of Napoleon, prohibiting all trade 
whatsoever with Great Britain, and declaring such vessels 
as paid the recently demanded tribute to be lawful prizes 
to the French marine, (December 17.) 
, ™ . ^ The heaviest blow was struck by Great Britain. 

Aiiiiir of , •' 

tiioChos-The American frigate Chesapeake, sailing from 
apeakc. j^.^j^^p^Q^ Roads, was hailed off the capes of Chesa- 
peake Bay by the British frigate Leopard, the captain of 



320 PART ly. 1797-1872. 

which demaQdecl to search the Chesapeake tor deserters. 
Captain Barron, the commander of the Chesapeake, re- 
fused ; whereupon the Leopard opened fire. As Barron 
and his crew were totally unprepared for action, they fired 
but a single gun, to save their honor ; then, having lost 
several men, struck their flag. Tiie British commander 
took those of whom he was in search, three of the four 
being Americans, and left the Chesapeake to make her 
way back dishonored, (June 22, 1807.) The president 
issued a proclamation, ordering British men-of-war from 
the waters of the United States. Instructions were sent 
to the American envoys at London, directing them, not 
merely to seek reparation for the wrong that had been 
done, but to obtain the renunciation of the pretensions to a 
right of search and of impressment, from which the wrong 
had sprung. The British government recognized their 
responsibility, by sending a special minister to settle the 
difficulty at Washington. It was four years, however, be- 
fore the desired reparation was procured, (1811.) The 
desired renunciation was never made. One can scarcely 
credit his eyes, when he reads that the affair of the Chesa- 
peake was made a party point. But so it was. The 
friends of Great Britain, the capitalists and commercial 
classes, generally, murmured at the course of their govern- 
ment, as too decided, too French, they sometimes called 
it ; as if resistance to Great Britain were subordination to 
France. 

Tiie ad- " ^^ th© present maniac state of Europe," wrote 
ministra- jgffgj.gQQ^ a little later, " I should not estimate the 
j,,rainst point of honor by the ordinary scale. I believe we 
war. shall, on the contrary, have credit with the world 
lor having: made the avoidance of beinsr eno^acred in the 
present unexampled war our first object." To this end, 
the president hit upon the most self-denying of plans. The 



PARTY ADMINISTRATIONS. 321 

aggressions of the European powers were directed against 
the rights of owners and of crews. Tliat these might be 
secured, the president recommended, and Congress adopted, 
an embargo upon all United States vessels, and upon all 
foreign vessels with cargoes shipped after lire passage of 
the act in United States ports, (December 22, 1807). In 
other words, as comiuerce led to injuries from foreiga 
nations, commerce was to be abandoned. France, on 
whose side the violent federalists declared the embargo to 
be, answered by a decree of Napoleon's from Bayou ue, 
orderins: the confiscation of all American vessels in French 
ports, (April 17, 1808.) Great Britain soon after made 
her response, by an order prohibiting the Exportation of 
American produce, whether paying tribute or not, to the 
European continent, (December 21.) So ineffective abroad, 
so productive of discontent at home, even amongst the sup- 
porters of the administration, did the embargo prove, that 
it was repealed, (March, 1809.) But its place was taken 
by non-intercourse or non-importation acts as restrictive 
as the embargo, so far as the designated nations were con- 
cerned, but leaving free the trade with other countries. 
The administration, now Madison's, amused itself with 
suspending the restrictions, in favor first of Great Britain, 
(1809.) and then of France, (1810,) hoping to induce 
those powers to reciprocate the compliment by a suspen- 
sion of their own aggressive orders. There was a show 
of doing so. Napoleon had recently issued a decree from 
Eambouillet, ordering the sale of more than a hundred 
American vessels as condemned prizes, (March 23, 1810.) 
But on tlie news from America, eager to involve another 
nation in hostilities, he intimated his readiness to retract 
the decrees of which the United States complained. But 
not, he made it known, except on one of two conditions; 
cither the British orders must be recalled, or else, if they 



322 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

were not, the United States must enforce their claims. 
To this Great Britain replied, that when the French 
decrees were actually, and not conditionally, revoked, her 
orders should be revoked likewise. It was but a mockery 
on both sides ; and America, mortified, but not yet enlight- 
ened, returned to her prohibitions. They were scoffed at 
by her own people. 

Oppo- It is ditTicult to catch the hue and cry, on the 

sition. pa^j-t^ of the opposition, against the embargo and the 
subsequent acts. AYhatever discontent, whatever nullifica- 
tion had been expressed by the republicans against the 
war measures of Adams, was rivalled, if not outrivalled, 
by the federalists against the so-called peace measures of 
Jefferson and Madison. Town meetings, state legisla- 
tures, even the courts in some places, declared against the 
constitutionality of the embargo. The federalists of Mas- 
sachusetts were charged with the design of dissolving the 
Union. It was not their intention, but their language had 
warranted its being imputed to them. " Choose, then, 
fellows-citizens,*' their legislature exclaimed, " between the 
condition of a free state, possessing its equal weight and 
influence in the general government, or that of a colony, 
free in name, but in fact enslaved by sister states." 

, ,. "While affairs, domestic and foreign, were thus 

Indian ' ^ ' 

hostiii- agitated, there came a fresh outbreak of Indian 
^*^^' hostilities. It was under Jefferson that the plan 
of removing the Indians westward was begun, (1804,) but 
the first effect was disastrous. Two chiefs of the Shaw- 
anoes, Tecumseh and his twin brother, styled the Prophet, 
for some time settled on the Tippecanoe River, in the 
Indiana Territory, had set themselves at the head of a sort 
of confederacy among the western races. One great point 
was to secure the title of the Indians, as a whole, to the 
lands of which the "%vliltes were getting possession^ by^ 



PARTY ADMINISTRATIONS. 323 

bargains with individuals or Avith individual tribes. An- 
other was the prohibition of the ardent spirits Avith which 
the traders were destroying the Indians, body and soul. 
But to support these principles, the confederates, or their 
leaders, relied upon treachery and terror, superstition and 
blasphemy. The governor of Indiana Territory, William 
H. Harrison, marched against them with a force of a few 
hundred. Tecumseh was absent at the time, but his 
brother and his confederates were overtaken. To the 
last, they professed peace, then fell upon the camp of the 
Americans. They were expected, however, and were 
routed, (November 7, 1811.) 

_ . . The steel was glistening upon the southern fron- 

ana and tier. An insurrection against the Spanish au- 
thority in West Florida had been followed by a 
presidential proclamation declaring the territory on the east 
bank of the Mississippi a portion of Louisiana, (October, 
1810.) Soon after, (January, 1811,) Congress authorized 
the acquisition of the entire province of Florida, provided 
either that Spain consented to it, or that any other power 
attempted to take possession. The next year, Louisiana, 
with a large portion of Florida, according to the Spanish 
claim, was admitted a state, (April 8, 1812.) Another 
slice of Florida was annexed to the Mississippi Territory, 
while an insurrection within the remaining Florida limits 
was stimulated by an American functionary ; a demonstra- 
tion being made against St. Augustine. This was prompt- 
ly disavowed by the government at Washington ; but the 
troops were not withdrawn until the following year, nor 
then entirely. Mobile being retained by way of compensa- 
tion for what was surrendered, (1813.) 

It was plain that Avar was becoming popular in the 
United States. As for that, it had long been so ; when 
Washington opposed it, he was abused ; when Adams 



324 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

,^ ,., favored it, he was extolled ; when Jefferson avoided 

Warlike ' _ ' ^ 

prcpara- it, he risked even his immense influence over the 
^'*^"^ ^ nation. Conirress now took up the question, and 
Great voted one measure after another, preparatory to 
Britain. j^Qg^i^ties with Great Britain, (December — March 
1812.) The president hesitated ; he was no war leader by 
nature or by principle. But his party, or the more active 
portion of it, was all for arms ; when he doubted, they 
urged ; when he inclined to draw back, they drove him 
forward. It being the time when the congressional caucus 
was about to nominate for the presidency, Madison re- 
ceived a direct intimation that if he was a candidate for re- 
election, he must come out for war. He then sent a mes- 
sage to Congress, recommending an embargo of sixty 
days. Congress received it, according to its intention, as 
a preliminary to war, and voted it, though far from unan- 
imously, for ninety days, (April 4, 1812.) 



CHAPTER II. 

War with Great Britain. 

Deciara- ANOTHER message from the president, (June 1,) 
tion. g^jj(j ^yr^j. ^y\i\^ Great Britain Avas voted by Congress, 
(June 18,) and then declared by the president, (June 19, 
1812.) 

The United States went to war for two great 
Cause . , _ ° 

of the principles ; one, the rights of neutrals, the other, 
United ^^^ ricrhts of seamen : both involviu!? the honor and 

States. . ^ ' ° 

the independence of the nation. The former prin- 
ciple was at once secured ; for when France unconditional- 
ly repealed her decrees, Great Britain withdrew her orders 
in council just as the war was declared, (June 23.) The 
other principle could be secured, so Great Britain insisted, 
if the United States would take measures to prevent 
British seamen from enlisting in the American service. 
" We must fight," cried the Avar party, " if it is only for 
what has been, for the seizure of nine hundred American 
vessels and six thousand American seamen, for the in- 
juries which arc beyond redress by negotiation." If the 
party had been frank, it would have added, " We must fight, 
if it is only for ourselves, and for the position which we 
liave staked on war." The cause of the United States 
was, primarily, the cause of a party, nominally headed by 
Madison, the president, by James Monroe, the secretary 
of state, by Albert Gallatin, (the same who appeared in 
the Pennsylvania insurrection of AYashiugton's time,) the 
28 (325) 



326 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

secretary of the treasury, and by others supporting the ad- 
ministration ; but the real leaders weie younger men, some 
risen to distinction, like Henry Clay, speaker of the House 
of Representatives, and Joiin C. Calhouu, member of the 
same body, but many more aspiring to pUice in council or 
in camp, to place any where, so that it promised the tame 
or the game for which they yearned. As such it was 
opposed by the party out of power. The signal, given by 
a protest from the federalist members of Congress, was 
caught up and repeated in meetings and at heaith-stones. 
Even the pulpit threw open its doors to political harangues, 
and those not of the mildest sort. " The alternative then 
is," exclaimed a clergyman at Boston, " that if }ou do not 
wish to become the slaves of those who own slaves, and 
who are themselves the slaves of French slaves, you must 
either, in the language of the day, cut the connection, or 
so far alter the national Constitution as to secure your- 
selves a due share in the government. The Union has 
long since been virtually dissolved, and it is full time that 
this portion of the United States should take care of itself." 
War at The War began at home. The office of a federal- 
home, jgi^ paper, the Federal Republican, conducted by 
Alexander Hanson, at Baltimore, was sacked by a mob, 
who then went on to attack dwellings, pillage vessels, and, 
finally, to fire the house of an individual suspected of par- 
tialities for Great Britain, (June 22, 23.) A month later, 
Hanson opened another office, and prepared to defend it, 
with the assistance of his friends, against the assault which 
he felt sure his boldness would provoke. The mob came, 
and, after a night of horror, forced the party in the office 
to yield themselves prisoners on a charge of murder. The 
next night the prison was assailed ; Hanson and his friends, 
excepting some who escaped, being beaten and tortured 
with indescribable fury. General Henry Lee, a revolu- 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 327 

tionary hero, who had takeu the lead iu the measures of 
defence, was injured for life. Another soldier of the revo- 
lution, General Lingan, was actually slain ; a fate which 
would have been shared by many, but for the exhaustion 
of the destroyers, (July 26, 27.) All this was done with 
nothing more than ihe f^liow of interference ou the part of 
the authorities. Even at the subsequent trial of the ring- 
leaders in the mob, they were acquitted. Hanson kept up 
his paper only by removing to Georgetown. 
Means Such being the passions, such the divisions iu- 

forthe ternaily, the nation needed more than the usual 
panoply to protect itself externally. But it had 
less. The colonies of 1775 did not go to war more uu- 
prepared than the United vStates of 1812. There was no 
army to speak of. Generals abounded, it is true, Henry 
Dearborn, late secretary of war, being at the head of tlie 
list ; but troops were scanty, a few thousand regulars and 
volunteers constituting the entire force. As to the militia, 
there was a general distrust of it, at the same time that the 
power of the government to call it out was denied by some 
state authorities.* If the army was small, the navy was 
smaller, embracing only eight or ten frigates, as many 
more smaller vessels, and a flotilla of comparatively use- 
less gunboats. The national finances were in a cor- 
respondingly low condition. The revenue, affected by the 
interruptions to commerce during the preceding years, 
needed all the stimulants which it could obtain, even in 
lime of peace. It was wholly inadequate to the exigencies 
of war. Accordingly, resort was had to loans, then to 
direct taxes and licenses, (1813.) In fine, the country had 

* The Constitution authorized Congress "to provide for calling forth 
the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and 
repel invasions." 



328 PART lY. 1797-1872. 

hardly another resource than its numbers merely, which 

were now increased to six millions free."^ 

„ ... Fortunate, therefore, was it that Great Britain 

Position ' ^ 

of Great was Otherwise occupied. Her mighty struggle with 
Britain. A^j^p^igQ^ ^yg^g ^t its height when the United States 
declared war, a declaration sounding much the same in 
British ears as the wail of a child amid the contentions' 
of men. 

The war. Notwithstanding all want of means, the United 
Losses ^States government determined to carry the war 

on north-. t-i i • -t^r-i 

Avestcrn mto the enemy s country, i^or this purpose, VVil- 
froutier. \[^Yy^ Hull, general and governor of Michigan Ter- 
ritory, crossed from Detroit to Sandwich, in Canada, with 
about two thousand men, (July 12.) In a little more than 
a month he had not only retreated, but surrendered, with- 
out a blow, to General Brock, the governor of Lower 
Canada, (August 16.) The British, already in possession 
of the northern part of Michigan, were soon masters of the 
entire territory. So far from being able to recover it. 
General Harrison, who made the attempt in the ensuing 
autumn and winter, found it all he could do to save Ohio 
from falling with Michigan. A detachment of Kentuck- 
ians yielded to a superior force of British at Frenchtown, 
on the River Raisin, (January, 1813 ;) whereupon Harri- 
son took post by the Maumee, at Fort Meigs, holding out 
there against the British and their Indian allies, (April, 
May.) The same fort was again assailed and again de- 
fended. General Clay being at that time in command, 
(July.) Fort Stevenson, on the Sandusky, was then at- 
tacked, but defended with great spirit and success by a 
small garrison vmder Major Croghan, (August.) Yet 
Ohio was still in danger. 

* The census of 1810 gave a total of 7,239,814, of which 1,191,364 were 

slaves. 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 329 

^ It was rescued by different operations from 

victory tliose as yet described. Captain Clianncey, after 
on Lake gathering a little fleet on Lake Ontario, where he 

Erie. . 

achieved some successes, appointed Lieutenant Oli- 
ver H. Perry to the command on Lake Erie. Perry's first 
duty was to provide a fleet ; his next, to lead it against 
the British vessels under Captain Barclay. At length the 
squadrons m.et off Sandusky, the British to suffer total de- 
feat, the Americans to win complete victory, (September 
10, 1813.) It was in more than official language that the 
president communicated this achievement to Con"-ress. 
" The conduct of Captain Perry," he said, " adroit as it 
v/as daring, and which was so well seconded by his com- 
1 ades, justly entitles them to the admiration and gratitude 
of their country, and will fill an early page in its naval an- 
nals with a victory never surpassed in lustre, however 
much it mny have been in magnitude." It was a victory 
on a small scale. Yet its importance immediately ap- 
peared. Taking on board a body of troops fro-m Ohio and 
Kentucky, under Harrison, Perry transported them to the 
neighborhood of Sandwich, on the Canada shore, the same 
spot against which Hull had marched more than a twelve- 
month before. The British having retired, Harrison 
crossed to Detroit. Recrossing, he advanced in pursuit of 
the much less numerous enemy, whom he defeated on two 
successive days, (October 4, 5.) The latter action, on the 
bank of the Thames, was decisive ; the British General Proc- 
tor making his escape with but a small portion of his troops, 
Avhile his Indian ally, Tecumseh, was ^luin. Ohio was thus 
saved, and Michigan recovered, though not entirely. 
Opera- On the frontier of New York the chief movement 

tionson ^yg^g g^jj attack against Queenstown, on the Canada 

New 

York shore of the Niagara River. Advanced parties 

frontier, gained possession of a battery on the bank, but 
28 * 



330 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

there they were checked, and at length obliged to sur- 
render, for want of support from their comrades on the 
American side. General Van Rensselaer was the Ameri- 
can, General Brock the British commander ; the latter 
falling in battle, the former resigning in disgust after the 
battle was over, (October IS, 1812.) In the following 
spring, General Dearborn and the land troops, in conjunc- 
tion with Chauncey and the fleet, took York, (now 
Toronto,) the capital of Upper Canada, burning the Parlia- 
ment House, and then proceeding successfully against the 
forts on the Niagara River, (April, May, 1813.) At this 
point, however, affairs took an unfavorable turn. The 
British mustered strong, and, though repulsed from 
Sackett's Harbor by General Brown, at the head of some 
regular troops and volunteers, they obtained the command 
of the lake, making descents in various places, and re- 
ducing the American forces, both land and naval, to com- 
parative inactivity, (June.) Months afterwards, the land 
forces, now under the lead of General Wilkinson, started 
on a long-proposed expedition against Montreal ; but en- 
countering resistance on the way down the St. Lawrence, 
went straight into winter quarters within the New York 
frontier. A body of troops under General Hampton, mov- 
ing in the same direction from Lake Champlain, met with 
a feint of opposition, rather than opposition itself, from the 
British ; it was sufficient, however, to induce a retreat, 
(November.) Both these armies far outnumbered the 
enemy, Wilkinson having seventy-five hundred, and Hamp- 
ton forty-five hundred men under them. On the western 
border of New York, things went still worse. General 
M'Clure, left in charge of the Niagara frontier, was so 
weakened by the loss of men at the expiration of their 
terms of service, and at the same time so pressed by the 
enemy, as to abandon the Canada shore, leaving behind 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 331 

him the ruins of Fort George and the village of Newark. 
Parties of British and Indians, crossing the frontier at dif- 
ferent places, took Fort Niagara, at the mouth of the river, 
and swept the adjacent country with fire and sword as far 
as Buffalo, (December.) Glutted with success, the in- 
vaders retired, save from Fort Niagara, which they held 
until the end of the war. In the following spring, (March, 
1814,) General Wilkinson emerged from his retreat, and, 
with a portion of his troops, undertook to carry the ap- 
proaches to Canada from the side of Lake Champlain. 
But on coming up with a stone mill held by British troops, 
he abruptly withdrew. 

On Niao-- -^^ ^^^® war, thus pitiably prosecuted, entered 
ara frou- into its third year, (1814,) a concentration of ef- 
forts, botii American and British, took place upon 
the Niagara frontier. - General Brown, the defender of 
Sackett's Harbor, obtained the command, and with such 
supporters as General Scott and other gaHant olRcers, 
resolved upon crossing to the Canada side. There, with 
an army of about thirty-five hundred men, he took Fort 
Erie, (July 2,) gained the battle of Chippewa, (July 5,) 
and drove the enemy, under General Riall, from the fron- 
tier, save from a single stronghold. Fort George. The 
British, however, on being reeuforced, returned under 
Generals Riall and Drummond, and met the Americans at 
Bridgewater, within the roar of Niagara. Begun by Scott, 
in advance of the main body, v.hich soon came up under 
Brown, the battle was continued until midnight, to the ad- 
vantage of the American army, (July 25.) But they were 
unable to follow up or even to mainlain their success, and 
fell back upon Fort Erie. Thither the British proceeded, 
and after a night assault, laid siege to the place, then 
under the command of General Gaines. As soon as 
Brown, who had withdrawn to recover from his wounds, 



332 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

resumed his command at the fort, he at once ordered a 
sortie, the result beiug the raising of the siege, (September 
17.) He was soon after called away to defend Sackett's 
Harbor, the enemy having the upper hand on the lake. 
His successor in command on the Niagara frontier. Gen- 
eral Izard, blew up Fort Erie, and abandoned the Canada 
shore, (November.) 

Meanwhile the American arms had distinguished 

Defence , i /^ i • • 

of Lake themselves ou the side of Lake Champlam. Thith- 
Cham- g]. descended the British General Provost with 
twelve thousand soldiers, lately arrived from Eu- 
rope, his object being to carry the American works at 
Plattsburg, and to drive the American vessels from the 
waters. He was totally unsuccessful. Captain McDonough, 
after long exertions, had constructed a fleet, with wliich 
he now met and overwhelmed the British squadron. Tlie 
laud attack upon the few thousand regiilars and militia 
under General Macomb was hardly begun before it was 
given over in consequence of the naval action, (September 
11.) No engagement in the war, before or after, was 
more unequal in point of force, the British being greatly 
the superiors ; yet none was more decisive. 
British The British superiority observable at Lake 
supcri- Champlain and elsewhere requires a word of ex- 
" ^' planation. Napoleon, fallen some months before, 
had left the armies and fleets of Great Britain free to act 
in other scenes than those to which they had been so long 
confined. The troops transported to America — some to 
Canada, as we have seen, more to other places, as we 
shall soon see — were superior to the Americans generally 
in numbers, and always in appointment and discipline. 
They were the men to whom France had succumbed ; it 
must have seemed impossible that the United States should 
resist them. 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 333 

Successes The apprehensions of the enemy, aroused by 
at sea. some of the operations ou laud, had been bighly 
excited by some of those at sea. Before the gallant actions 
upon the lakes, a succession of remarkable exploits had 
occurred upon the ocean. It had been the policy of the 
republican administration to keep down the navy, which 
their federalist predecessors had encouraged. But the 
navy, or that fragment of one which remained, returned 
good for evil. The frigale Essex, under Captain Porter, 
took the sloop of war Alert off the northern coast, (August 
13, 1812 ;) the frigate Constitution, Captain Isaac Hull, 
took the frigate Guerriere in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
(August 19 ;) the sloop of war Wasp, Captain Jones, took 
the brig Frolic, both, however, falling prizes to the seventy- 
four Poictiers, not far from the Bermudas, (October 13 ;) 
the frigate United States, Captain Decatur, took the 
frigate Macedonian off the Azores, (October 25 ;) and the 
Constitution again, now under Captain Baiubridge, took 
the frigate Java off Brazil, (December 29.) This series 
of triumphs was broken by but two reverses, the capture 
of the brig Nautilus by the British squadron, and that of 
the brig Vixen by the British frigate Southampton, both 
off the Atlantic coast. Nothing could be more strikiug 
than the effect upon both the nations that were at war. 
The British started at defeat, particularly on the sea ; and 
the war assumed an aspect not before admitted on their 
side. The Americans were proportionately animated. " I 
never felt the national feeling so strongly aroused," WTOte 
Washington Irving, '' for 1 never before saw, in this coun- 
try, SO true a cause for national triumph." 
Subse- Here, however, the impulse ceased, or began to 

quent cease. The navy was too inconsiderable to con- 
tmue its victories, the nation too inactive to recruit 
its numbers and its powers. The captures of the succeed- 



334 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

ing period of the war, tliougli made with quite as much 
gallantry, were of much le^^s importance ; while one vessel 
after another, beginning with the frigate Chesapeake, oiF 
Boston harbor, (June 1, 1813,) was forced to stril^e to the 
enemy. Many of the larger ships were hemmed in by t'.ie 
British blockade, when this, commencing with the war, was 
extended along the entire coast. The last glimmer of naval 
victory for the time Avas the defeat of the sloop of war 
Avon by the Wasp, Captain Blakely, off the French coast, 
(September 1, 1814.) But a few weeks later, the Wasp 
was lost with all its crew, leaving not a single vessel of the 
United States navy on the seas. Every one that had 
Cocaped the perils of the ocean and of war was shut up in 
port behind the greatly superior squadrons of Great Britain. 
The coast, from the first blockaded, and occa- 

Losses 

ui.oH tiic sionally visited by invading parties of the British, 
''°^^*" was in an appalling state, (1814.) Eastport was 
taken ; Castine, Belfast, and Machias were seized, with 
claims against the whole country east of the Penobscot 
Cape Cod, or some of the towns upon it, had to purchase 
safety ; Stonington was bombarded. Fortifications were 
hastily thrown up wherever they could be by the Ameri- 
cans ; the militia was called out by the states, and the 
general government was urged to despatch its regular 
troops to the menaced shores. It was officially announced 
by the British Admiral Cochrane that he was imperatively 
instructed " to destroy and lay waste all towns and districts 
of the United States found accessive to the attack of 
British armaments." This was not war, but devastation. 
Capture The Chcsapcakc, long a favorite point for the 
of u ash- British descents, was now occupied by a larsre, 

inston . ' 1 .7 to ' 

and Alex- indeed a double fleet, under Admirals Cochrane 
andna. ^^^^ Cockbum, witli scvcral thousand land troops 
and marines under General Ross. This body, landing 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 335 

about fifty miles from Washington, marched against that 
city, while the American militia retreated hither and 
thither, making a stand for a few moments only at Bladens- 
burg, (August 24.) On the evening following this rout, 
the British took possession of Washington, and next day 
proceeded to carry out the orders announced by the admiral. 
►Stores were destroyed ; a frigate and a sloop were burned ; 
the public buildings, including the Capitol, and even the man- 
sion of the president, were plundered and fired. Against 
this " unwarrantable extension of the ravages of war," as 
it is styled by a British writer, the United States had no 
right to complain, remembering the burning of the Parlia- 
ment House at York, or the destruction of Newark, in the 
preceding year, although both these outrages had been 
already avenged on the New York frontier. A few hours 
were enough for the work' of ruin at Washington, (August 
25,^ and the British returned to their ships. The same 
di"'' (August 29) some frigates appeared ofi* Alexandria, 
and extorted an enormous ransom for the town. Every 
thing on the American side was helplessness and submis- 
sion. The president and his cabinet had reviewed the 
troops, which mustered to the number of several thousands ; 
generals and officers had been thick upon the field ; but 
there was no consistent counsel, no steadfast action, and 
the country lay as open to the enemy as if it had been 
uninhabited. 

It is a relief to turn to Baltimore. Fresh from 

Defence 

of Raiti- their marauding victories, the British landed at 
North Point, some miles below that city. They 
were too strong for the Americans, who retired, but not 
until after a bravely contested battle, in which the British 
commander. General Ross, was slain, (September 12.) As 
the army advanced against the town, the next day, the fleet 
bombarded Fort McHenry, an inconsiderable defence just 



336 TAUT IV. 1797-1S72. 

below Baltimore. But the bombardment and the advance 
proving ineffectual, the invaders retreated. They had been 
courageously met, triumphantly repelled. North Point and 
Fort McHenry are names which shine out, like those of 
Erie and Champlain, brilliant amidst encompassing dark- 
ness. 

Indian -^^ i^ ^^^'^ ^'^1' Averc not enough for a nation so 

foes. hard pressed, another had broken out. The Indians 
on the north-west, the followers of Tecumseli, and others 
besides, were but the allies of the British. Independent 
foes, fighting altogether for themselves, uprose in the Creeks 
of the Mississippi Territory, where they surprised some 
hundreds of Americans at Fort Mimms, (August, 1813.) 
Numerous bodies of border volunteers at once started for 
the haunts of the enemy, chief amongst the number being 
the troops of Tennessee, under* General Jackson. Pene- 
trating into the heart of the Creek country, after various 
bloody encounters, Jackson at length routed the main body 
of the foe at a place called Tohopeka, (March 27, 1814.) 
A few months after, he concluded a treaty, by which the 
Creeks surrendered the larger part of their territory. 
National Enough remained, as has been seen, to keep the 
straits, nation in sad straits. There were various causes to 
produce the same effect. To raise the very first essential 
for carrying on a war, a sufficient army, had been found 
impossible, notwithstanding the increase of bounties and the 
enlistment of minors without the consent of their parents or 
masters ; * all allurements failed. The chief reliance of the 
government was necessarily upon the militia, about which 
the same controversies continued as those already mentioned 
between the federal and the state authorities. Yet, to show 



* Rejected, when first proposed to Congress, but afterwards carried, 
(December, 1814.) 



WAR WITH CHEAT BRITAIN. 337 

the extent to which the opposition party indulged itself in 
embarrassing the government, an alarm was sounded 
against the national forces, small though thej were, as 
threatening the liberties of the country. But the army 
was not the only point of difficulty. To prevent supplies 
to the forces of the enemy, as well as to cut him off from 
all advantages of commerce with the United States, a new 
embargo was laid, (December, 1813.) So severe were 
its restrictions, affecting even the coasting trade and the 
fishery, that Massachusetts called it another Boston port 
bill, and pronounced it, by her legislature, to be uncon- 
stitutional. It was repealed in a few monlhs, and with it 
the non-importation act, which, in one shape or anotlier, 
had hung upon the commercial interests of the nation for 
years, (April, 1814.) More serious by far were the 
financial embarrassments of the government. All efforts 
to relieve the treasury had been wholly inadequate. Loan 
afler loan was contracted ; tax after tax was laid, until 
carriages, furniture, paper, and even watches, were as- 
sessed, while other help was sought, as in a new national 
bank, the earlier one having expired according to the pro- 
visions of its charter. But the state to which the finances at 
length arrived was this, that while eleven millions of 
revenue were all to be counted upon, — ten from taxes, 
and only one from custom duties, — fifty millions were 
needed for the expenditures of the year, (1815.) It did 
not change matters when a large number of the banks of 
the country suspended specie payments, (August, 1814.) 
p.^j,^ The opposition to the war had never ceased. It 

contro- rested, indeed, on foundations too deep to be lightly 
y'fri>ios. j^Q^,gj_ Below the points immediately relating to 
the war itself, were earlier questions. Such old topics as 
the relations of the national and the state government 
came up for fresh controversy. " The governments of the 
29 



338 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

United States," declared the federalist chief magistrate of 
Massachusetts, " is founded on the state governments, and 
must be supported by them." There might be a change 
of sides ; federalists might stand where republicans had 
stood, and republicans where federalists had done ; but 
the divisions were the same. Even those between the north 
and the south reappeared, and with wider lines, in the midst 
of the war, which, as a general rule, the south supported 
and the north opposed. 

The idea of a convention of the party, or, as the 

Hartford 

Conveii- phrase ran, of the states opposing the war, was 
*'""■ started in Massachusetts. So little countenance did 
it receive, as to be dropped for several months, when 
increasing trials led to increasing struggles. It was then 
renewed, but in the more modest guise of " a conference 
between those states the affinity of whose interests is closest, 
and whose habits of intercourse from local and other causes 
are most frequent ; " in other words, the New England 
States ; but action upon subjects of a national nature was 
to be left, should the conference deem it expedient, " to a 
future convention from all the states in the Union." The 
Massachusetts legislature appointed twelve delegates to 
represent her in the conference, and invited her sister states 
of Nev/ England to do likewise, (October, 1814.) Con- 
necticut responded by appointing seven delegates, and desig- 
nating Hartford as the place for the conference to meet. 
Rhode Island appointed four delegates ; two counties in 
New Hampshire and one county in Vermont, one delegate 
each. Twenty-six were chosen, all but two of whom were 
present on the opening of the conference at Hartford, 
(December 15.) The other two afterwards appeared, con- 
stituting, with the secretary, an assembly of twenty-seven. 
ciiarjios of So Small was the body to which an immense 
disunion, importance was attached at and after the time, but 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 339 

rather by its opponents than its adherents. The latter re- 
garded it just as it was, a meeting of men to whom the 
greater part of New England was glad to intrust its shat- 
tered interests, but without any dee})-seated expectation of 
Fuccor, so strong against them wa? the majority of the 
nation. To this majority, however, or to its mouthpieces, 
the assembly at Hartford w^ore a different aspect. It was 
the last desperate stake, the administration party urged, of 
the opposition ; lost or won, it hastened the issue of disunion 
so long suspected as prepared. Whatever extremes the fed- 
eralists may have fallen into, there is no proof of their 
intending to separate from their countrymen. The call of 
the Massachusetts authorities for this very conference at 
Hartford proposed such deliberations and such measures, 
only, as were " not repugnant to their obligations as mem- 
bers of the Union." That they were in earnest appears 
from the proceedings of the conference, or the Convention, 
as it is generally called. 

The Convention, of whicli George Cabot, of Mas- 
in-'s of the ^^chusetts, was the president, and Harrison Gray 
Conven- Qtis, also of Massachusetts, the leading member, 

tica. 

addressed itself to its work with prayer. It found 
two classes of " dangers and grievances," as it entitled them, 
to be considered: one which required present i-elief, the 
other which might be left for future redress. Of the first, 
the chief were the illegal course of the government in rela- 
tion to the militia and the destitution of all defensive re- 
sources in which New England was left. To meet these 
difficulties, the Convention suggested that the New England 
States might be allowed to assume their own defence, and, 
furtlier, that a reasonable portion of tlie taxes assessed upon 
them by the general government should be retained by 
them to cover the expenses of defending themselves. As 
to the second class of complaints, embracing most of the 



340 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

matters that had been urged against the republican admin- 
istrations by the federalists, the Convention set forth seven 
amendments to the Constitution. These were all prohib- 
itory : one against any representation of slaves ; another 
against any embargo of longer duration than sixty days ; 
three others against any law of non-intercourse, any war, 
unless it were defensive, any admission of a new state, ex- 
cept by a two thirds vote in Congress ; a sixth against the 
eligibihty of persons " hereafter to be naturalized " to Con- 
gress or to any civil office under the United States ; and a 
seventh against the reelection of a president, or the election 
of two successive presidents from the same state. In pro- 
posing these amendments, the Convention declared " that no 
hostility to the Constitution is meditated." After providing 
for a second Convention at Boston, in case " peace should 
not be concluded and the defence of these states should be 
rejected," the Convention adjourned, having been three 
weeks in session, (January 5, 1815.) 

The results were almost null. They might be 
said to have been altogether so, but for a law passed 
by Congress without any apparent reference to the Con- 
vention, ordering that militia should " be employed in the 
state raising the same or in an adjoining state, and not else- 
where, except with the assent of the executive of the state 
so raising the same," (January.) Otherwise, nothing fol- 
lowed the much dreaded Convention. The commissioners 
appointed to apply to the general government on the part 
of Massachusetts, for leave to carry out the recommenda- 
tions of the Convention touching the self-defence of the 
states, found the war at an end when they reached Wash- 
ington. The constitutional amendments were rejected by 
the states to which they were proposed. 

Meanwhile proceedings on which far less stress has been 
laid than upou those of the Hartford Convention, had 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. ' 341 

NuiiiUca- occurred in Connecticut and Massachusetts. The 
tion in legislatures of those states passed acts in direct 

Connecti- r,- • i r. . -r^ . ^ 

cut and Conflict With a recent statute of the United States 
Massa- regarding the enlistment of minors. So far was 
■ this contradicted by the measures in question, that 
the parties engaged in enlisting minors were subjected to 
fine and imprisonment, (January, 1815.) It was not the 
first time that these states had set themselves against the 
Union. Both had taken ground against the embargo, Con- 
necticut by statute and Massachusetts by her judicial 
tribunals. Massachusetts had more lately resisted the 
measures of the government, as we shall see, in relation 
to British prisoners. Nullification was far beyond the 
doctrines of the Convention. That body had declared 
itself in tliis wise : " That acts of Congress in violation of 
the Constitution are absolutely void is an undeniable posi- 
tion. It does not, however, consist with the respect and 
forbearance due from a confederate state towards the 
general government, to fly to open resistance upon every 
infraction of the Constitution." But passions were high, 
and nullification came naturally to New England. 
Defence Late in the summer preceding tlie Hartford Con- 
or Louis- vention, a British party landed at Pensacola, whose 
Spanish possessors were supposed to be inclined to 
side against the United States. An attack, in the eai'ly 
autumn, upon Fort Bowyer, thirty miles from Mobile, was 
repelled by the small but heroic garrison under Major 
Lawrence, (September 15.) A month or two afterwards, 
General Jackson advanced against l*en&acola with a force 
so formidable that the British withdrew, Jackson then 
resigning the town to the Spanish authorities, and repairing 
to New Orleans, against which the enemy was believed to 
be preparing an expedition, (November.) There he busied 
himself in raising his forces and providing his defences, 
29* 



342 ' PART lY. 1797-1872. 

until the British arrived upon the coast. After capturing a 
feeble flotilla of the Americans, they began their advance 
against the capital of Louisiana, (December.) They were 
ten thousand and upwards ; the Americans not more than 
half as numerous. Jackson, on learning their approach, 
marched directly against them, surprising them in their 
camp by night, and dealing them a blow from which they 
hardly seem to have recovered, (December 23.) They 
soon, however, resumed the offensive under Sir Edward 
Pakenham, advancing thrice against the American lines, 
but thrice retreating. The last action goes by the name of 
the battle of New Orleans. It resulted in the defeat of the 
enemy, with the loss of Pakenham and two thousand be- 
sides, the Americans losing less than a hundred, (January 
8, 1815.) The British retired to the sea, taking Fort 
Bowyer, the same that had resisted an attack the autumn 
before, (February 12.) Louisiana had been nobly de- 
fended, and not by the energy of Jackson alone, nor by the 
resolution of her own people, but by the generous spirit 
with which the entire south-west sent its sons to her 
rescue. 
,^ ^. , Jackson had hesitated at nothinor in defendinar 

Martial ^ '^ 

law at New New Orleans. Upon the approach of the British, 
r eans. j^^ proclaimed martial law ; he continued it after 
their departure. The author of a newspaper article reflect- 
ing upon the general's conduct was sent to prison to await 
trial for life. The United States district judge was arrested 
and expelled from the city for having issued a writ of 
habeas corpus in the prisoner's behalf; and on the district 
attorney's applying to the state court in behalf of the judge, 
he, too, was banished. On the proclamation of peace, mar- 
tial law was necessarily suspended. The judge returned, 
and summoning the general before him, imposed a fine of 
one thousand dollars. The sum was paid by Jackson, but 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 343 

was offered to be repaid to liim by a sj.ibscriptioD, which 
proved public opinion to sustain his determined course.* 
It was characteristic of the mim and of his adherents in 
after years. 

While these events were jroinji: on l)y land, the 

Reappear- o o j •> 

ance of sca was for a time abandoned, at least by all na- 
ena\y. ^.j^j^^j vesscls. PHvatecrs continued their work of 
plunder and of destruction — a work which, however miser- 
able to contemplate, doubtless had its effect in bringing the 
war to a close. But the navy of the nation had disappeared 
from the ocean. It presently reappeared in the shape of its 
pride and ornaraeni:, the Constitution, which, under her new 
commander, Stewart, got to sea I'roni Boston, (December, 
1814.) The President, Hornet, and Peacock did the same 
from New York, the President being immediately captured, 
though not without a severe combat, by the British cruisers, 
(January, 1815.) Her loss was avenged by the sister ves- 
sels ; the Constitution taking two sloops of war at once — 
the Cyane and the Levant — off Madeira, (February 20;) 
the Hornet sloop taking the Penguin brig off the Island of 
Tristan d'Acunha, (March 23 ;) and the Peacock sloop 
taking the Nautilus, an East India Company's cruiser, off 
Sumatra, (June 30.) f All these actions were subsequent 
to a treaty of peace. 

The war had not continued a year when the administra- 
tion accepted an offer of Russian mediation, and despatched 

* Refusing to receive the subscription, he was reimbursed, near thirty 
years afterwards, by order of Congress. 

f " Thus terminated at sea," says the British historian Alison, towards 
the close of an account by no means partial to the American side, " this 
memorable contest, in which the English, for the first time for a century 
and a half, met with equal antagonists on their own element ; and in re- 
counting which, the British historian, at a loss whether to admire most 
the devoted heroism of his own countrymen or the gallant bearing of 
their antagonists, feels almost equally warmed in narrating either side of 
the strife." 



344 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

Peace euvoys to treat of peace. The chief points to be 
prelimi provided for, according to the instructions, were, 

Til i*ips 

first, impressments, of which the settlement had 
been facilitated by an American law prohibiting the eu- 
Hstment of British seamen in the service of the United 
States, and next, the matter of blockades, the oulj pjirt 
of the anti-neutral system which had not been abandoned 
by the British, (March, 1813.) Great Britain declined 
the mediation of Russia, but offered to enter into negotia- 
tions either at London or at Gottenburg. The Ameri- 
can government chose the latter place, and appointed five 
commissioners — John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, 
Henry Clay, Jonathan Russell, and Albert Gallatin — 
to negotiate a treaty, under much the same instructions as 
before, (January, February, 1814.) But on the news of 
the triumph of Great Britain and her allies over Napoleon, 
the demands of the United States were sensibly modified. 
The opposition alleged it to be from fear of the foe, whose 
power was so much increased by the issue of the European 
war. But the administration and its party declared that 
the pacification of Europe did away with the very abuses 
of which America had to complain ; in other words, that 
there would be no blockades or impressments in time of 
peace. At all events, the envoys were directed to leave 
these points for future negotiation, confining themselves at 
present to the conclusion of a general treaty. They were 
also authorized to treat at London, if they thought the 
arrival of British commissioners at Gottenburg was likely 
to be delayed, (June.) The new instructions found the 
commissioners of both nations in session at Ghent, (Au- 
gust 8.) 

Treaty of Four months and a half elapsed before coming to 
Ghent, terms. The British demands, especially on the 
point of retaining the conquests made during the war, were 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 345 

altogether inadmissible. Fortunately, they were yielded; 
the disposal of the American question being desirable in 
the uncertain state of European affairs. ^' Some of our 
European allies," wrote Lord Liverpool, Briti.sli premier, 
to Lord Castlereagh, British ambassador at the Ct)n- 
gress of Vienna, then in session, " may not be indisposed 
to favor Americans, and if the Emperor of Russia should 
be desirous of taking up their cause, we arc well aware 
that there is a most pow^erful party to support him." The 
command of the British forces in America v/as pressed 
upon the Duke of Wellington. Fie consented in case the 
war should be continued, but advised peace, being satisfied, 
as he said, that there was " no vulnerable point of impor- 
tance belonging to the United States " which could be held 
by the British " except New Orleans." Nor even this, as 
Sir Edward Pakenham soon afterwards found. Castle- 
reash wrote from Vienna that the American war made 
little sensation there. But when it was terminated by the 
negotiations at Ghent, those at Vienna were carried for- 
ward with much less difficulty than Great Britain had pre- 
viously experienced. The treaty of Ghent restored the 
conquests on either side, and provided commissioners to 
arrange the boundary aud other minor questions between 
the nations, {December 24.) As for the American objects 
of the war, according to the declai-ations at its outbreak, 
they were not mentioned in the articles by which it was 
closed ; yet the United States did not 'hesitate to ratify 
the treaty, (February 18.) Within a week afterwards, 
the president recommended '' the navigation of American 
vessels exclusively by American seamen, either natives or 
such as are already naturalized ; " the reason assigned being 
*' to guard against incidents which, during the periods of 
war in Europe, might tend to interrupt peace," 



-/i 



346 TART IV. 1797-1872. 

Though much was waived foi- the sake of peace, 

I*rot©c~ 

tion of one principle, if no more, had been maintained for 
toicisn- Q^^y country. In the first 3''ear of the war, the 

crs. 

British had set out to treat some Irishmen taken 
while lighting on the American side, not as ordinary pris- 
oners of w^ar, but as traitors to Great Britain. On their 
being sent to be tried for treason in England, Congress 
aroused itself In their behalf, and authorized the adoption 
of retaliatory measures. An equal number of British cap- 
tives was presently imprisoned, and when the British 
retorted by ordering twice as many American officers into 
confinement, the Americans did the same by the British 
officers in their power. The British government went so 
far as to order its commanders, in case any retaliation was 
inflicted upon the prisoners in American hands, to destroy 
the towns and their inhabitants upon the coast. It was at 
this juncture that Massachusetts, as already alluded tOy 
appeared in the lines of nullification. The federalist ma- 
jority in Massachusetts, eariug little for the fate of the 
Irish prisoners, forbade the use of ihe state prisons for the 
British officers now ordered to be confined, (February, 
1814.) The matter was set at rest by the retraction of 
the British government, Vviio consented to treat the Irish- 
men as prisoners of war. Proclamation was made par- 
doning all past ofiences of the sort, but threatening future 
ones with the penalties of treason ; a threat never at- 
tempted to be fulfilled, (July.) 

Indian Some mouths^ after the treaty of Ghent, a treaty 

treaty, -^y.^g made with the Indians of the north-west. Such 
as had been at war agreed to buiy the tomahawk, and to 
join with such as had been at peace in new relations with 
the United States, (September.) 

Aigerine Another treaty had been made by this time. It 
treaty, ^^.^^g ^^.-(j^ ^j^^, j)^,^ of Algiers, who had gone to war 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 347 

with the Uuited States iu the^same year that Great Britain 
did. The United States, however, had paid no attention 
to the inferior enemy until relieved of the superior. Then 
v/ar was declared, and a fleet despatched, under Commo- 
dore Decatur, by which captures Avere made, and terms 
dictated to the Algerine. The treaty not only surrendered 
all American prisoners, and indemnified all American 
losses in the war, but renounced the claim of tribute on 
the part of Algiers, (June.) Tunis and Tripoli being 
brought to terms, the United States were no longer tribu- 
tary to pirates. 

Exhaus- Madison was reelected president, with Elbridge 
lion. Gerry as vice president, in the first year of the war. 
If he really consented to war as the price of his re-elec- 
tion, he had his reward. The ditficulties of his second 
term, more serious than those of any administration before 
him, weighed upon him heavily. He welcomed peace, as 
his party welcomed it, — in fact, as the whole nation wel- 
comed it, — with the same sensations of relief that men 
would feel if the earth, yawning at their feet, should sud- 
denly close. To see from wdiat the government and the 
nation were saved, it is sufficient to read that systems of 
conscription for the army and of impressment for the navy 
were amongst the projects pending at the close of the war, 
and that the public debt had been increased by one hun- 
dred and twenty millions — a far larger sum in those 
days than in these. Some parts of the country had suf- 
fered more than others ; some industries, like those of 
commerce, had vanished. But as a whole, the people were 
in a state of temporary exhaustion. 

iiKiepcn- It was not so much in vain as it sometimes seems, 
dence. Indirectly, almost unconsciously, our fathers had 
perfected their independence of other nations. jSTever 
after, as before the treaty of Ghent, did the United States 



348 PART IV. 1797-1S72. 

hang in suspense upon British orders or French decrees ; 
never agnin did the people, or their parties, shape their 
course merely according to foreign movements. Not the 
war itself, so much as what went before, bore this fruit ; 
the war w^as merely the forcing process by which the fruit 
was ripened. 



CHAPTER III. 

Missouri Compromise. 

Recovery. The depression at the close of the war was not 
so great as the elation at the return of peace. Men every- 
where resumed their old enterprises, or entered upon new 
ones, without fear of the past or the future. The govern- 
ment addressed itself at ouce to the restoration of national 
prosperity. A new tariff was adopted, partly to increase 
the revenue, and partly to protect domestic manufactures. 
Internal taxes were gradually abolished. A new Bank 
of the United States was chartered, (March, 1816.) All 
this was not done in a day ; nor was the revival of the 
nation uninterrupted. But the general tendency was to- 
wards recovery from the disorders into which the country 
had been plunged by the recent war. 
Admiais- Madisou's troubled administration came to an 
trations. q^^^ James Monroe was the president for the 
next eight years, (1817-25,) witli Daniel D. Tompkins as 
vice president. Monroe, once an extreme, but latterly a 
moderate republican, so far conciliated all parties as to be 
reelected with but one electoral vote against him. Old 
parties were dying out. The great question of the period, 
to be set forth presently, was one with which republicans 
and federalists, as such, had nothing to do. 
Seminole 'i'he new administration had but just opened, when 
war. the Seminole war, as it was styled, broke out with 
the Indians of Georgia and Florida. It began with mas- 

(349) 



350 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

sacres on both sides, and ended with a spoiling, burning, 
slaying expedition, half militia and half Indians, under 
General Jackson, the conqueror of the Creeks in the pre- 
ceding Avar, (March, 1818.) On the pretext that the 
Spanish authorities countenanced the hostilities of tlie 
Indians, Jackson took St. Mark's and Pensacola, not 
without some ideas of seizing St. Augustine. lie also 
put to death, within the Spanish limits, two British sub- 
jects accused of stirring up the Indians, (March, JMay.) 
So that the war, though called tlie Seminole, might as 
well be called the Florida war. The Spanish minister 
protested against the invasion of the Florida territory, of 
which the restitution was immediately ordered at Washing- 
ton, though not without approbation of the course pursued 
by Jackson. 

Florida was a sore spot on more accounts than 

Acquisi- ^ 

tion of one. The old trouble of boundaries had never 
been settled ; but that was a trifle compared with 
the later troubles arising from fugitive criminals, fuii'itive 
slaves, smugglers, jjirates, and, as recently shown, Indians, 
to whom Florida furnished not only a refuge, but a starting 
point. The Spanish authorities, themselves by no means 
inclined to respect their neighbors of the United States, 
had no power to make others respect them. " This coun- 
try," said President Monroe, referring to Florida, " had, in 
foct, become the theatre of every species of lawless adven- 
ture." Matters there were not improved by the uncertain 
relations still continuing between the United States and 
Spain. Former difficulties, especially those upon American 
indemnities, were not settled ; while new ones had gathered 
in consequence of South American revolutions, and North 
American dispositions to side with the revolutionists. The 
proposal of an earlier time to purchase Florida was renewed 
by the United States. Its acceptance was impeded chiefly 



MlSSOUm COMPROMISE. 351 

by clifferences on the boundary between Louisiana and the 
Spanish Mexico, but this being settled to begin at the Sa- 
bine River, a treaty was conehided. On the payment of 
five millions by the American government to citizens who 
claimed indemnity from Spain, that power agreed to relin- 
quish the Floridas, East and V^est, (February 22, 1819.) 
It was nearly two years, however, before Spain ratified 
the treaty, anel fully two before Florida Territory formed 
a part of the United States, (1821.) 

New The State of Connecticut, hitherto content with 

states, jjgj. charter government, at length adopted a nev^ 
constitution, in which there Mas but little improvement 
upon the old one, except in making suffrage general and 
the support of a church system voluntary, (1818.) New 
constitutions and new states were constantly in process of 
formation. Indiana, (December 11, 1816,) Mississippi, 
(December 10, 1817,) Illinois, (December 3, 1818,) and 
Alabama,* (December 14, 1819,) all became members of 
the Union. 

_, , Before the actual accession of Alabama, Mis- 

Proposal ' 

of Mis- souri was proposed as a candidate for admission, 
soun. j^ ^^,^g ^ slaveholding territory. But when the bill 
authorizing it to frame a state constitution was before Con- 
gress, a New York representative, James W. Tallmadge, 
moved that no more slaves should be brought in, and that 
the children of those already there should be liberated at 
the age of twenty-five. This passed the House of Repre- 
sentatives, but failed in the Senate. Then another New 
York representative, John "W. Taylor, moved to prohibit 
.<:;lavery in the entire territory to the north of latitude oG^ 
SO' ; but this, too, was lost. A bill setting off the portion 
of Missouri Territory to the south of the line just named, 

* Tlic eastern half of the Mississippi Territory became the Territory 
of Alabama in 1817. 



352 PART lY. 1797-1S72. 

as the Territory of Arkansas, Avas passed. But nothing 
was done towards establishing the State of Missouri, 
(February, March, 1819.) 

Intense Had it been an outbreak of hostilities, had it been 
agitation. ^ niarch of one half the country against the other, 
there could hardly have been a more intense agitation. 
A large number felt that the time had come to make a 
stand against the extension of slavery. On the other 
hand, the attempted prohibition of slavery was denounced 
as violating the rights of the slaveholding states ; nay, 
more, as the preliminary to a negro massacre, a civil 
war, a dissolution of the Union. The aged Jeficrsou wrote, 
despondingly, " The Missouri question is a breaker on 
which we lose the Missouri countr}" by revolt, and "what 
more God onlv knows. From the battle of Bunker's Hill 
to the treaty of Paris we never had so ominous a ques- 
tion." John Adams was more sanguine : " I hope it will 
follow the other waves under the ship, and do no harm." 
Public meetings were held ; those at the south to repel the 
interference of the north, those at the north to rebuke the 
pretensions of the south. The dispute extended into the 
state tribunals and legislatures, the northern declaring that 
Missouri must be for freemen only, the southern that it 
must be for freemen and their slaves. 

Question "^^ ^^^^ Certainly a great question. *' Scarcely 
ofsia- ever," said a Massachusetts representative, '^ was 
^^^^' so great a question before a human tribunal." 
Not only Missouri, but the rest of that vast region ori- 
ginally called Louisiana, Avas to be opened or closed to sla- 
very. Not only the few thousand slaves within the terri- 
tory claiming to become a state, but the thousand thousands 
to follow them, in the state and beyond it, were to be dis- 
posed of by the decision that must soon be reached. The 
party of freedom insisted upon the right and the duty of 



MISSOUni COMPROMISE. 353 

Congress to make Missouri free ; the party of slavery was 
equally urgent that Congress had no right to interfere, that a 
state alone could determine whether it would be slavehold- 
ing or not in any ease, and that in this particular case it 
had no option, being bound by the treaty under which Mis- 
souri, as a part of Louisiana, had been acquired, and by which 
the inhabitants, being admitted to all the rights of United 
States citizens, had been admitted to all the rights of 
United States slaveholders. There was also a numerical 
argument. The Union now consisted of twenty-two states, 
eleven free, elev^jn slaveholding ; and as the last, Alabama, 
had been slaveholding, the next ought to be free. When 
Congress re-assembled, and Maine sought to be received as 
a state, Massachusetts consenting, (1820,) the argument 
from numbers was turned, and Missouri was to be slave- 
holding, because Maine was to be free. 
Tho Com- The Senate united Maine and Missouri in the 
promise, gr^^p^ic \)\\\ and on the same terms ; that is, without 
any restriction upon slavery. But a clause introduced on 
the motion of Jesse B. Thomas, of Illinois, prohibited the 
introduction of slavery into any portion of the Louisiana 
Territory as yet unorganized, leaving Louisiana the state 
and Arkansas the territory, as well as Missouri, just what 
they were ; that is, slaveholding. The line of 3G° 30', pro- 
posed the year before, was again proposed, save only that 
?»Iissouri, though north of the line, was to be a Southern 
State. This was the Missouri Compromise. It came 
from the north. On the part of the north, it yielded tho 
claim to Missouri as a free state ; on the part of the south, 
it yielded the claim to the immensely larger regions which 
stretched above and beyond Missouri to the Pacific. Thus 
the Senate determined, not without opposition from both 
sides. The House, on the contrary, adopted a bill admit- 
ting Missouri, separately from Maine, and under the 
30* 



354 PA,RT IV. 1797-1872. 

northern restriction concerning slavery. Words continued 
to run high. Henry Clay, still in the House, wrote that 
the subject " engrosses the whole thoughts of the mem- 
bers, and constitutes almost the only topic of conversa- 
tion." A committee of conference led to the agreement of 
both Senate and House upon a bill admitting Missouri, 
after her constitution should be formed, free of restric- 
tions, but prohibiting slavery north of the line of 36° 30', 
(March 3, 1820.) Maine was admitted at the same time, 
(March 3-15.) 

j^.g. The Compromise prohibited slavery in the desig- 

interpre- nated region forever. This was the letter ; but it 
tations. ^^,^g under different interpretations. When Presi- 
dent Monroe consulted his cabinet upon approving the act 
of Congress, all but his secretary of state, John Quincy 
Adams, inclined to read the prohibition of slavery as ap- 
plying only to the territories, and not to the states that 
might arise beyond the prescribed boundary. This was 
not a difference between northern and southern views, but 
one between strict and liberal constructions of the Consti- 
tution ; the strict construction going against all power in 
Congress to restrict a state, while the liberal took the 
opposite ground. So with others besides the cabinet. 
Among the very men who voted for the Compromise were 
many, doubtless, who understood it as applying to territo- 
ries alone. The northern party, unquestionably, adopted 
it in its broader sense, preventing the state as well as the 
territory from establishing slavery. That there should be 
two senses attached to it from the beoinnini? was a dark 
presage of future differences. 

Admis- Present differences were not yet overcome. Mis- 
sion of souri, rejoicing in becoming a slaveholding state, 
^*^^°""* adopted a constitution which forbade the legisla- 
ture to emancipate slaves or to allow the immigration of 



MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 355 

free negroes. On this being brought before Congress, 
towards the close of the year, (1820,) various tactics were 
adopted ; the extreme southern party going for the imme- 
diate admission of the state, while the extreme northern 
side urged the overthrow of state, constitution, and Com- 
promise, together. Henry Claj\ at the head of the mod- 
erate men, succeeded, after long exertions, in carrying a 
measure providing for the admission of Missouri as soon 
as her legislature should solemnly covenant the rights of 
citizenship to " the citizens of either of the states," (Feb- 
ruary, 1821.) This was done, and Missouri became a 
state, (August 10.) 

Slave While the nation thus refused to arrest slavery 

trade. within its limits, it resisted the extension of the 
slave trade. Upwards of fourteen thousand slaves were 
said to have been imported in a single year, (1818.) 
Upon this an act of Congress attached fresh and severer 
penalties to the slave dealer, and provided for the return of 
his unhappy victims to their native country, (1819.) An- 
other act denounced the traffic as piracy, (1820.) 



CHATTER IV. 

The MoMiOK Doctrine. 

Indopoiul- TiiHKK years after the treaty o( Client, tlie for- 
onoo of eigii secretary of the Britisli governiueut asked 
•uid South ^^^^ Anieriean minister, Kieiiard Knsli, at London. 
America, what the I'nited States would do about Spanisli 
America. lie meant tlie colonies of Spaiu in Central 
and South America, which had some time belore declared 
their iudepeudcnce, and afterwards maintained it in arms, 
hut which the European jnnvers desired to see restored to 
their former colonial condition. It was a time of re- 
action apiiust freedom throuo:hout Europe and Euroju>an 
possessions. The Holy Alliance of Russia, Prussia, and 
Austria, to which France and Great Britain more or less 
adhered, had undertaken to remove all traces of the French 
revolution and its kindred movements ; and of these the 
rising throughout Spanish America was one. The couti- 
deuce of the American minister in the independent spirit 
of the government he represented, appeared in his reply 
to the question of the British secretary, that ^^ the only 
basis" upon which the United States would neg()tiate con- 
cerning the Spanish colonies was their *' independence." 
Four years later, this independence was fornially recog- 
nized by the United States government, (182'2.) 
~jj^^ It was a brave act. The European allies were 

Monroe evidently preparing to interfere, iirst with Spain 
herself, where fresh revolutions had broken our, 

(356) 



THE MONROE DOCTltlNE. 357 

and ihori with lier revolted colonies. Only Gre'it Britain 
was drawing baek, and from her alone conld the United 
States expect any sort of acquiescence in the recognition 
of the American states. Her foreign secretary, then 
George Canning, proposed to Mr. Rusii, still minister at 
London, a foncurrent d(iclaration of Orcut Biitain aij<l 
the United States in f)p[)Osition to tie course of the conti- 
nental powers. In a later interview. Canning spoke of 
the question as '• a new and complicated one in modern 
affairs," and, while seeking action, seemed to fail in finding 
any which could be adopted, or, if adopted, be effectual. 
A month or two later, (December 2, 1823,) President 
Monroe sent his seventh annual message to Congress, and 
here announced that, in negotiations with Russia, his ad- 
ministration had asserted, " as a principle in which the 
rights and interests of the United States are involved, that 
the American continents, by tlie free and independent 
position which they have assunjed and maintained, are 
henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colo- 
nization by any European powers." " We owe it," con- 
tinued the president, '-to candor, and to the amicable rela- 
tions existing between the United States and those powers, 
to declare that we should consider any attempt on their 
part to extend their system to any portion of this hemi- 
sphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the 
existing colonies or dependencies of any European power 
we have not interfered, and shall not interfere. But 
with the governments who have declared their independ- 
ence, and maintained it, and whose independence we have 
on great consideration and on just principles acknowledged, 
we could not view any interposition for the purpose of 
oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their 
destiny by any European power, in any other light than 
as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition towards 



3-58 PART IV. 1797-1S72. 

the United States." Such was what has since been called 
the Monroe Doctrine. 

Author- If it had borne the name of its immediate author, 
ship. ij- -^vould have been called after John Quincy Adams, 
then secretary of state, rather than the president. But 
the real authorship is to be traced, beyond any individual, 
to the nation, or to the thinking part of the nation. Such 
Avere the times, and such the politics of Europe, so adverse 
to every political principle which an American republican 
held dear, that he longed to have his government commit- 
ted to a better course. " There will be, I trust," said 
Daniel Webster, " an American policy." As he was 
speaking a month after the message, he might have said. 
There is an American policy. 

Its purpose, as far as the Monroe Doctrine went, 

Purpose. 

was twofold. It showed the intention of the 
United States to prevent the European powers from ex- 
tending their system across the Atlantic either to destroy 
free institutions v.dicre they existed, or to set up their own 
institutions wherever a spot could be found. The first 
point was to protect the republics of Central and South 
America. The second was to protect the yet unoccupied 
regions of the entire continent. As to the first, Mr. Rush 
wrote home from London, that it was expected and well re- 
ceived ; but as to the second, he declared that it was unex- 
pected, and would not be acquiesced in by England. It was 
of mucli greater consequence that the purpose of the Doc- 
trine should be sustained at home. Congress declined to 
take any formal action ; but, as Webster said, some time 
later, tlie tone of the president's message " found a cor- 
responding response in the breasts of the free people of 
the United States." 

Aid to The same message which spoke for freedom in 

Greece, ^j^g ^Q^y ^yorld spoke for it in the old. Two 



THE MONROE DOCTRINE. 35^ 

years before, the Messenian Senate had appealed to the 
United States for aid to the Greeks in their struggle 
against the Turkish yoke. Sympathy had been won, 
subscriptions and personal services had been given by in- 
dividuals, and DOW the message expressed the national con- 
cern. Webster followed it up by one of his great speeches 
in the House, urging the appointment of a commissioner 
to Greece, and all the moral support that could be lent to 
a righteous cause. 

Lafayette's A few months later Lafayette arrived, on na- 
visit. tional invitation, to behold the work which he had 
aided in his youth. The French government, as its am- 
bassador at London confessed, did not like the invitation, 
or the American frigate that was placed at the disposal of 
the guest, for the government was of the then prevailing tem- 
per, while Lafayette was identified with all that was liberal, 
or, as his opponents would say, revolutionary in Europe. 
His visit, therefore, was not merely a proof of American* 
gratitude towards himself, but of American sympathy with 
the principles which he represented more than any other 
raan alive. " The other day," he says, " at Boston, God 
was prayed to give liberty to the two hemispheres ; and a 
devotion like this suits me better tlian the anti-revolution- 
ary anatliemas of P^urope." From the day of his landing 
(August IG, 1824) to that of his departure, (September 7, 
1825,) a period of more than a year, he was, as he de- 
scribed himself, " in a whirlwind of popular kindnesses 
of which it was impossible to have formed any previous 
conception, and in which every thing that could touch and 
flatter one was mingled." " A more interesting spectacle, 
it is believed," said President Monroe, " was never wit- 
nessed, because none could be founded on purer principles, 
none proceed from higher or more disinterested motives." 
To make some amends for his early sacrifices, pecuniary as 



360 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

well as personal, in the American cause, Congress voted 

Lafayette a township of the public domain, and a grant of 

two hundred thousand dollars. 

When John Quincy Adams had risen to the 
Congress ^ •' 

of Pan- presidency, (1825,) an invitation was received by 
araa. ^j^^ government from some of the Central and 
South American states to unite in a congress at Panama. 
The objects, ranging from mere commercial negotiations 
up to the Monroe Doctrine, were rather indefinite ; but 
Adams appointed two envoys, whom the Senate confirmed, 
and for wliom the House made the necessary appropria- 
tions, though not without great opposition, (December, 
1825 — March, 1826.) One of the envoys died, the other 
did not go upon his mission ; so that the congress began 
and ended without any representation from the United 
States, (June — July.) It adjourned to meet at Tacu- 
baya, near Mexico, in the beginning of the following year. 
The ministers of the United States repaired to the appoint- 
ed place, and at the appointed time, but there was no con- 
gress. 



CHAPTER V. 

Tariff Compromise. 

NuUifica- The alleged right of a state to nullify any act 
tion. -which it deemed imconstitutional on the part of 
the general government was but another form of asserting 
that the state, and not the nation, Avas the sovereign 
authority according to the Constitution. It had been 
maintained, as we have seen, by Jefferson and Madison in 
1798, and by the New England federalists in 1814 and 
1815. It was now renewed, and became the great ques- 
tion before the country during the administrations of 
Adams and Jackson. 

In Many years before, Georgia had ceded her 

Geor^a. western lands, covering the present Alabama and 
Mississippi, on condition that the United States govern- 
ment would buy and transfer to her the large tracts still 
held by the Creeks and Cherokees within her borders. 
This the government began to do ; but some difficulty with 
the Creeks, who had not been fairly dealt with, delayed 
the execution of the contract. The governor of Georgia 
hinted at anti-slavery motives on the part of the adminis- 
tration, and called upon the adjoining states to stand by 
their arms. President Adams commimicated the matter 
to Congress, asserting his intention "to enforce the laws, 
and fulfil the duties of the nation by all the force com- 
mitted for that purpose to his charge." Whereat the gov- 
ernor wrote to the secretary of war, " From the first 
31 (361) 



362 PART IV. . 1707-1872. 

decisive act of hostility, you will be considered and treated 
as a public enemy," (1827.) Fortunately, the winds 
ceased. The state that had set itself against the nation 
more decidedly than had ever yet been done returned to 
its senses. As for the unhappy Indians, not only the 
Creeks, but all the other tribes that could be persuaded to 
move, were gradually transported to more distant territo- 
ries in the west. 

Other causes were operating to excite the states. 

Tariffs. . 

or some of them, agamst the general government. 
The tariff of 1816, intended to assist the nation in recover- 
ing from the lasses of war, had also been intended to pro- 
tect domestic manufactures against importations from 
abroad. It was urged by the Southern States in the 
opinion that cotton would command higher prices if man- 
ufactured at home, and was resisted by the Northern, 
especially the New England States, whose interests were 
then commercial rather than manufacturing or agricultural. 
But after tlie adoption of the tariff, the Northern and 
Middle States devoted more and more of their capital to 
manufactures, while the cotton-growing states continued to 
raise the raw material without attempting to manufacture 
it ; so that the northern and southern sections gradually 
changed front, until the southern became violently opposed 
to protective duties, by which, as one of its chief leaders 
declared, its interests had been shamefully sacrificed, while, 
on the otlier hand, the manufacturers, not merely of cotton, 
but of woollen, hemp, iron, and other materials, in the East- 
eru and Middle States, demanded protection; "and it mat- 
ters not," tliey said at a convention in Harrisburg, (1827,) 
" if it amounts to prohibition." The controversy resulted 
in the triumph of the protective, or, as its supporters called 
it, the American, system in the tariff of 1828. 



TARIFF COMPROMISE. 363 

Exposi- Several of the Southern States declared this to 
tion and ^^ unconstitutional. South Carolina did more, and 

protest ^ ^ ' 

of South her legislature issued an Exposition and Protest, 
Carolina. Jq which the resistance of the state to the f^eneral 
government was not only threatened, but justified, (De- 
cember, 1828.) "The existence," it was argued, " of the 
right of judging of their powers, clearlj established from 
the sovereignty of the states, as clearly implies a veto or 
control on the action of the general government on con- 
tested points of authority ; and this very control is the 
remedy which the Constitution has provided to prevent the 
encroachment of the general government on the reserved 
rights of the states. . . . There exists a case [the 
tariff] which would justify the interposition of this state, 
and thereby compel the general government to abandon an 
unconstitutional power." It was at this same time, " in 
December, 1828," wrote Daniel Webster, " I became 
thoroughly convinced that the plan of a southern confeder- 
ation had been received with favor by a great many of the 
political men of the south." Secession vras the inevitable 
consequence of nullification. 

Jackson's Andrew Jackson succeeded to the presidency, 
first acts. (1829.) His first act was to remove hundreds of 
public officers in order to provide for his followers. In 
this he had no example among his predecessors, for all the 
six together had made just sixty-four removals from office, 
and no more. Ilis next act of importance was to recom- 
mend Congress to modify the tariff of the year before, 
which was the same as to recommend concession to the 
demands of South Carolina and other discontented states. 
Some months later, (May, 1830,) Congress adopted a few 
modifications, that would have been unimportant but for 
the precedent of giving way on the part of the nation. 



364 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

Web- But before this action was taken, the nation and 

ster's de- j^g sovereignty had been nobly defended in the 
thena- Senate of the United States. Senator Foot, of 
tion. Connecticut, offered a resokition at the close of the 
previous year, (1829,) concerning the disposition of the 
public lands ; but these were soon lost sight of in the de- 
bates which followed concerning the relative powers of 
the states and the national government. Robert Y. Hayne, 
a senator from South Carolina, appeared in support of 
the theories to which his state was committed ; but every 
one knew that he was speaking for a greater leader, John 
C. Calhoun, vice president of the United States under 
Jackson, as he had been under Adams, and yet more in- 
fluential as the head and front of nullification. Hayne's 
first speech on this question (January 19, 1830) was 
ansAvered by Webster the next day, and with such effect 
that Hayne's rejoinder was not completed for several days, 
when Webster spoke the second time, (January 26,) and 
with greater effect than had or has ever been witnessed in 
either house of Congress. His purpose Avas to lay the axe 
at the root of nullification'; and this he did by a close and 
decisive argument that the national government is not a 
compact among sovereign states, but a government estab- 
lished by the people, and to be resisted, if at all, only by 
appeal from one of its branches to another, or by the right 
of revolution against them all. " I trust," said the great 
orator, to whom the proud title of Defender of the Consti- 
tution was given by his grateful countrymen, '* the crisis 
has in some measure passed by," (1831.) 
j5a(j But not even Webster could then see how peril- 

temper, ous the crisis continued. A visitor at Yv^ashington, 
early in 1831, describes the temper in Congress; and the 
temper there prevailed elsewhere : " When we entered the 
House, there was a debate going on relative to reduction 



TARIFF COMPROMISE. 365 

of duty on salt. Some southern members spoke Avith great 
vehemence, but nobodj on the floor paid any attention to 
them. They spoke of their oppression, of throwing them- 
selves on the sovereignty of their states, of being goaded 
to rebellion, of the time being near when Vengeance should 
stalk about these halls. It vras melancholy to see such 
feelings aroused among our countrymen, and more painful 
to see them quite disregarded." 

ggy^i^ A year and more later, the storm long brewing 

Carolina broke upon the country. Congress, having reduced 
t!ie high duties upon some articles, but left them 
upon others, refused to abandon protection in the new tariff 
of 1832. The South Carolina members of Congress im- 
mediately united with Vice President Calhoun in an address 
declaring their conviction " that the protecting system 
must now be regarded as the settled policy of the country," 
and recommending "a struggle " to transmit to posterity 
"the rights and liberties received as a precious inheritance 
from an illustrious ancestry." The legislature of South 
Carolina summoned a convection of the state, v^'hich met 
at Columbia, under the presidency of Governor Hamilton, 
(November 19.) A few days sufficed to pass an ordinance 
declaring ''that the several acts, and parts of acts, purport- 
ing to be laws for the imposing of duties on importation . , . 
are unauthorized by the Constitution of the United States, 
and violate the true intent and meaning thereof, and are 
null and void, and no law, nor binding upon the State of 
South Carolina, its officers and citizens ; . . . and that 
it shall be the duty of the legislature to adopt such measures 
and pass such acts as may be necessary to give full effect 
to this ordinance, and to prevent the enforcement and arrest 
the operation of the said acts, and parts of acts, of the 
Congress of the United States within the limits of the 
state," (November 24.) 
31* 



366 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

. , In all this there was nothing new.. But South 

And ° 

threatens Carolina went further than any of her predecessors 
to secede. .^ jjuHifieatioD. " We, the people of South Caro- 
lina," concluded the ordinance of the convention, "do 
further declare that we will not submit to the application 
of force, on the part of the federal government, to reduce 
this state to obedience, but that we will consider the pas- 
sage by Congress of any act ... to enforce the acts 
hereby declared to be null and void, otherwise than through 
the civil tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with the 
longer continuance of South Carolina in the Union ; and 
that the people of this state . . . will forthwith pro- 
ceed to organize a separate government." 

If the state was resolute, the general government 

Kesolu- , „,, . , . , . , 

tion of ^^^^ ^° 1^^'^ ^^* -'^"® president was m his eiement.. 
govern- A crisis whicli he was eminently adapted to meet 
had arrived. It called forth all his independence, 
all his nationality. Other men — more than oue of his pred- 
ecessors — would have doubted the course to be pursued; 
they would have staid to inquire into the powers of the 
Constitution, or to count the resources of the government; 
nay, had they been consistent, they would have inclined 
to the support, rather than to the overthrow, of the South 
Carolina doctrine. Jackson did not waver an instant. He 
took his own counsel, as he was wont to do, and declared 
for the nation against tlie state ; then ordered troops and a 
national vessel to the support of the government officers in 
South Carolina. " No act of violent opposition to the laws 
has yet been committed," — thus the president declared in 
a proclamation ; "but such a state of things is hourly ap- 
prehended ; and it is the intent of this instrument to proclaim 
not only that the duty imposed on me by the Constitution, 
to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, shall be 
performed, . . . but to warn the citizens of South Car- 



TARIFF COMPROMISE. 367 

olina . . . that the course they are urged to pursue is 
oue of ruin and disgrace to the very state whose right they 
aifect to support," (December.) The appeal to the South 
Carolinians was the more forcible in coming from one of 
themselves, as it were ; Jack-^on beiiig a native of their 
state. Addressing Congress in an elaborate message, (Janr 
uary 16, 1833,) the president argued dcnvn both nullifica- 
tion and secession, maintaining that ''the result of each is 
the same ; since a state in which, by a usurpation of power, 
the constitutional authority of the federal government is 
openly defied and set aside, wants only the form to be inde- 
pendent of the Union." He then proceeded to recount the 
measures which he had taken, and to propose those which 
he considered it necessary for Congress to take. Congress 
responded, after some delay, by an enforcing act, tlie pri- 
mary object of which was to secure the collection of the 
customs in the South Carolina ports. To this Calhoun, 
who had resigned the vice presidency in order to represent 
South Carolina in the Senate, opposed himself in vain ; 
while Webster argued against him as he had done against 
Ilayne two years before, (February.) 
^ , The government did not stand alone. One after 

T?esolu- ® 

tion of another the states, by legislative or by individual pro- 
^^'^ '^^' ceedings, came out in support of the national princi- 
ple. The principle of state sovereignty, that might have ibund 
support but for the extremity to which it had been pushed, 
seemed to be abandoned. South Carolina was left to her- 
self, even by her neighbors, usually prone to take the same 
side. Only Virginia came forward, appealing to the gov- 
ernment as well as to South Carolina to be done with strife. 
As if to show her sympathy for the cause of the state, Vir- 
ginia appointed a commissioner to convey her sentiments to 
the people of South Carolina. Otherwise the states ranged 
themselves distinctly, though not all actively, on the side 
of the nation. 



368 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

™ .g. But OD one point there was a decided reservatiou 

compro- with many of the states. The tariff was openly 
™^'^'^' condemned by North Carolina, Alabama, and 
Georgia ; the last state proposing a southern convention, to 
take some measures of resistance to the continuance of a 
system so unconstitutional. Henry Clay took the matter 
up in the Senate. He had been the advocate of the Mis- 
souri Compromise, and now, in consultation with others, 
brought forward a tariff compromise. This proposed that 
the duties on all imports exceeding twenty per cent, should 
be reduced to that rate by successive diminutions through 
the next ten years, (till June 30, 1842.) Unlike the Mis- 
souri question, the tariff question was disposed of with- 
out protracted struggles. The advocates of protection 
opposed the compromise as a financial measure, but far 
graver objections were brought against it as a political 
measure. Webster considered it as '" yielding great prin- 
ciples to faction," and others thought with him that it was 
no time to waive the national supremacy at the moment 
that a state was in open rebellion against it. But the com- 
promise became a law, (March 2.) " The lightning," as one 
of Clay's correspondents wrote to him, was " drawn out 
from the clouds lowering over the country," and South 
Carolina returned to her former position. But that was 
full of insubordination, and the clouds still lowered. 

The president never ceased to regret that he had 
The pres- ^ ° 

ident's not done as he threatened, and arrested Calhoun 
regret. ^^^ high treason. It was a regret in which many 
shared, believing that the time had come to test the strength 
of the national government, and that the trial of its second 
officer, on the charge of conspiring against it, would have 
been a better opportunity of settling the relations between 
the nation and the state than could be found in enforcing 
acts or compromises. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Anti-Slavery, 

Calhoun's Calhoun, escaping trial, went home to tell his 

basis. people that the south could not be united against 

the north on the tariff question, " The basis of southern 

union," he said, " must be shifted to the slave question." 

Two This question had then (1833) entered upon its 

periods j^^^^ phase. In the history of the movement against 

jn the *^ '^ 

anti- slavery in the United States, two periods are easily 

slavery oijggj.ye^]^ Xhe first is from the beginning of the 

move- 

mcnt. government to the year 1831, during which anti- 
slavery meant opposition to an evil from which all parts of 
the country were suffering, and to the relief of which all 
must contribute. Slavery was to be removed gradually, 
and with compensation to iha owners of slaves who might 
be emancipated. As a general rule, societies were the in- 
struments to be employed in bringing about the desired 
results, the subject being too delicate, or too vast, or both, 
for individual action. All this changes in the second pe- 
riod, from 1831 forward. Slavery is the sin for which 
those only who tolerate it are to pay the penalty ; it is to 
be wiped out at once, and without compensating those who 
have upheld it ; and as its abolition is to be effected only 
at ^reat risks and in defiance of powerful traditions, it 
must be the work of individuals, who, though combined 
in associations, are mostly engaged in individual action, 

(369) 



370 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

It was a natural consequence of this contrast that while the 

Soutii cooperated in anti-slavery movements before 1831, it 

set itself against them afterwards. Of one hundred and 

forty-four anti-slavery societies in 1826, one hundred and 

six were southern. Of the comparatively few, ten years 

later, all were northern. 

„ ,, The dividinoj line between the two periods is 

South- =" ^ 

amptou marked by the Southampton massacre. This hap- 
massacre. pgj^gj Jq i\^q Virginia county of that name in 
August, 1831. Its leader was a slave of fanatic character, 
named Turner ; its first victims were sixty whites, its last 
one hundred blacks, who fell before the state militia and 
United States troops sent against them. In December of 
the same year, the legislature of Virginia, discussing the 
massacre, went on to discuss its cause, and the possibility 
of removing it by emancipation. Various plans were pro- 
posed, and though Bone was adopted, though all were 
opposed by the eastern members, the tone of the debate 
was generally anti-slavery. " The hour of the eradication 
of the evil is advancing," said T. J. Randolph, a grandson 
of Jefferson ; '''it must come." It was the last time that 
any southern legislature, or assembly of any kind, suffered 
slavery to be treated in this style. 

Already the chans^ed character of the anti-slavery 

Luncly ./ o j 

and movement had appeared. Benjamin Lundy, a me- 

arrison. ^jj^^-^ of Quaker parentage, began his journal, en- 
titled Genius of Universal Emancipation, in 1821, and 
three years later, removed its office from Ohio to Mary- 
laud. There, at Baltimore, in a slaveholding community, 
he continued to urge the immediate abolition of slavery, 
and, nat content with his labors as a journalist, travelled 
north and south to meet men face to face, and increase the 
number of his fellow-laborers. In Boston, he found a 
a young printer, William L.^ Garrison, working in the 



ANTI-SLAVERY. 371 

same cause, and williag to follow him to Baltimore. Soon 
after Garrison's arrival, however, an article which he 
wrote exposed him to arrest and fine, and being unable to 
pay the fine, he was imprisoned until set free by a friend 
at a distance. He made his way back to Boston, and to 
its better opportunities of writing freely, and at the be- 
ginning of 1831 established the Liberator, a paper of 
more outspoken and unshaken hostility to slavery than 
any which went before or followed after. "A greater 
revolution in public sentiment," it declared, " is to be 
effected in the free states, particularly in New England, 
than at the south. . . . Let southern oppressors trem- 
ble ; let their northern apologists tremble. . . . On this 
subject I do not wish," said the determined editor, " to 
speak or write with moderation." 

The new school of abolitionists was neither nu- 
j^^^^ merous nor lunuentiai at the begmnmg. A few 
Slavery local societies were formed, and their meetings and 
ocie y. ^y^^\y\\Qf.^^\QY\s increased the volume rather than the 
power of the movement. It gathered fresh strength from 
the abolition of British colonial slavery by Parliament in 
the summer of 1833, and early in the following winter 
the leading abolitionists met at Philadelphia and organized 
the American Anti-Slavery Society. The declaration of 
this body, compared by its members to the Declaration of 
Independence adopted in the same city fifty-seven years 
before, was drawn by Garrison. It recognized the right 
of states to legislate exclusively on slavery within their 
own limits, but asserted the right of the general govern- 
ment to suppress the slave trade from state to state, and 
to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia and the 
territories. It insisted upon the duty of the government 
and the people, particularly in the free states, " to remove 
slavery by moral and political action, as prescribed in the 



372 PAllT IV. 1797-1872. 

Constitution of the United States." In every respect the 
declaration was imperative ; and as not only expressing, but 
inspiring, the strongest anti-slavery convictions of the time, 
it must be forever memorable in our history. The poet 
Whittier said, thirty years afterwards, " I set a higher 
value on my name as appended to the anti-slavery decla- 
ration of 1833 than on the title page of any book." 

The abolitionists were soon beset. Men pointed 
«n!r«l " at them as if they were mad or wicked. Mobs 
tiie broke into their meetings and laid violent hands 

people. ypQj^ their leaders, who were sometimes rescued 
only by being taken to prison. The legislature of Geor- 
gia offered five thousand dollars for the arrest and convic- 
tion of the editor or publisher of the Liberator. Not 
Georgia alone, but Alabama, North and South Carolina, 
and Virginia, called upon the free states to make anti- 
slavery publications penal offences, and to suppress anti- 
slavery societies. These demands were supported by 
those in office and those out of office throughout the north. 
At Charleston, S. C, the United States post-office was 
attacked, and papers brought by mail from the north were 
seized and burned, (1835.) Instead of defending his 
charge, the postmaster ordered similar mail matter to be 
stopped thereafter, and the postmaster general of the 
United States, though confessing that he had no authority 
to ratify such an act, refused to condemn it. 

The government followed the lead of the people, 
govern- President Jackson's message of December, 1835, 
suggested tlic passage of a law to prohibit the cir- 
culation of " incendiary publications" through the mails. 
Two mouths later, Calhoun, chairman of a Senate commit- 
. tee, reported a bill providing that when a state declared 
publications to be incendiary. Congress must prohibit their 
circulation ; bufthis fell through, (April, 1836.) Its fail- 



ANTI-SLAVERY. 373 

lire was more than made up, however, by the adoption, in 
the House of Representatives, of a rule wliich was main- 
tained for several years, that "all petitions relating in 
any way to slavery be laid on the table without being 
printed or referred," (May 11.) These first concessions to 
slavery were ominous not to the slave alone, but to the free. 
,, ^ Amono; the few who Stood firm on the other side 

Murder '=' 

of was Elijah P. Lovejoy, a young New England min- 

ovejoy. jg^gj,^ ^j^Q |-i^^ become the editor of the Observer, 

at St. Louis. He was a man of broader nature and better 
education than any who had become conspicuous in the 
anti-slavery cause. He did not profess to be an abolition- 
ist, or to devote himself exclusively to a crusade against 
slavery ; but his sympathies were all on the side of freedom, 
and he never hesitated to express them. If he was a 
champion of any one principle, it was of free speech, which, 
as we have seen, had fallen into great peril since the gov- 
ernment and the people united against it. " So long as I 
am an American citizen," said Lovejoy, " so long as Amer- 
ican blood runs in these veins, I shall hold myself at liber- 
ty to speak, to write, and to publish whatever I please on 
any subject, being amenable to the laws of my country for 
the same." He removed his j)aper from St. Louis to Al- 
ton, Illinois, that he might be in a free state ; but the state 
was not free to him, or to brave men like him. Repeatedly 
assailed by mobs, his house stoned, his printing presses 
destroyed, he was in arms Avith 'a few friends to defend a 
new press from threatened violence, when he was shot about 
midnight, (November 7, 1837.) Such was the spirit of 
the country, that a meeting to express some natural senti- 
ment at this murder was held with great difficulty in Faneuil 
Hall, and, when held, Avas obliged to listen to a defence of 
the murderers from the attorney general of Massachu- 
setts. 

32 



374 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

,,. , All tliis drove the abolitionists to a new and 

Violence 

of aboii- extreme position. " The grand rallying point,'* 

tiou'sts. T X r^ • „ II" • i ii 

according to (j.arrison and Ins associates, was the 
repeal of the Union, (1842.) Otlier i-epeals were proposed 
— that of the pulpit, vvliich had not tliundered as it ought 
against slavery, that of the ehurfhcs, which had not forced 
their pulpits to thunder. Tliese passionate demands tlirew 
back abolitionism, instead of advancing it. Men willing to 
act against slavery were not willing to act against their 
country or their church, and instead of becoming abolition- 
ists they became anti-abolitionists. Another party would 
have to be formed to take the lead, and this could not be 
done in a day. 

For twenty years and more, colored sailors arriving 
chusetts in a port of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, 
missions, ^j^^ Louisiana, had been subject to imprisonment 
during the stay of the vessel in which they came. William 
Wirt, Attorney General of the United States, gave the 
opinion that the act of South Carolina, where this practice 
originated, Avas unconstitutional, and incompatible with 
the rights of other nations, (1824.) But though South 
Carolina vielded as far as British seamen were concerned, 
she refused to yield with regard to Americans ; and in this 
she, with her sister states, was upheld by Congress when 
that body refused, by a large majority, to interfere, (1842.) 
In 1844 the Massachusetts legislature authorized the gov- 
ernor to appoint agents to inquire into the imprisonment 
of Massachusetts seamen in Charleston and New Orleans, 
the two great ports of the Southern States. The governor 
sent Samuel Hoar to Charleston, and Henry Hubbard to 
New Orleans, but both were driven off. South Carolina 
asserted her right to exclude " seditious persons or others 
whose presence may be dangerous," and on this ground the 
Massachusetts agent was expelled. The state had previous- 



ANTI-SLAVERY. 375 

ly contented itself with shutting out colored citizens ; it 
now shut out white. " Has the Constitution of the United 
States," asked the expelled agent in his report to the State 
of Massachusetts, " the least practical validity or binding 
force in South Carolina, except where she thinks its oper- 
ation favorable to her?" 

Necessity ^"^ narrative has not been too brief to show 
of anti- how great a necessity the anti-slavery movement 
8 avery. ^^^ become, and how certain, therefore, it was to 
grow and spread, notwithstanding all the weakness of its 
friends and all the streno-th of its foes. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Annexation of Texas. 

Turning back to some events which we have 

United 

States passed by, we enter upon a controversy no less 
^" * severe than that between freedom and slavery. It 
is between President Jackson and the democratic party on 
the one side, and on the other the United 8tates Bank 
and the whig party, then in opposition, and under the 
leadership of Clay and Webster. After putting a veto on 
the renewal of the bank charter, (1832,) the president, now 
in his second term, (1833,) directed the secretary of the 
treasury to remove the treasury deposits from the bank ; 
and when the secretary tlieu in office declined to do so, he 
was displaced by another, Roger B. Taney, who consented. 
Tlie Senate charged the president with violating the Con- 
stitution, and Webster called upon " all who mean to die 
as they live, citizens of a free country," to " stand together 
for the supremacy of the laws." The question was politi- 
cal as well as financial, and thus excited universal interest. 
Financially, the countr\'^ was in a singular condi- 

Finances. . . „ 

tion. The public debt was paid off, (1835,) and 
twenty-eight millions of surplus revenue were distrib- 
uted among the states, (1837.) But the course of 
trade, the speculations and disorders among business men, 
brought about a commercial crisis, from which almost 
every body suffered — capitalists failing, laborers losing 
employment, and families sinking into v»'ant. Specie pay- 

(376) 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 377 

merits were suspended by the banks, first of New York, 
then of other cities ; and a deputation waited upon the 
president, now Martin Van Buren, to ask the suspension 
of payment in specie to the treasury, and the summons of 
Congress in an extra session. The extra session was held 
in September, but the president's proposal of a system by 
which the public moneys should be deposited iu public 
offices, instead of banks, was not adopted until a later 
time. It was not for the government, but for the people 
themselves, to restore their broken fortunes. 
State in- ^"^ great obstacle was the financial condition of 
Bolvency. the States. In the two years preceding the crisis, 
state debts had been contracted to the amount of nearly 
one hundred millions. It soon became difficult to meet 
even the interest on these obligations. Indiana, Arkansas, 
and Illinois stopped paying interest ; Maryland and Penn- 
sylvania paid only by certificates, and by those only iu 
part. Michigan and Louisiana ceased not merely to pay, 
but also to acknowledge their debts, wliile Mississippi re- 
pudiated five millions at once, on the 'ground that the bank 
iu whose favor her bonds had been issued had sold them 
on terms contrary to its charter. Eight states and a ter- 
ritory (Florida) thus became bankrupt, or worse than 
bankrupt, in the course of eighteen months, (1841-2.) 
nur^^ ,.,„^ Rhode Islaud met with a peculiar trial. Its 
in Rhode charter government, now a century and a quarter 
* old, had long been the object of reform. Two new 
constitutions were proposed, (1841,) one by a convention 
called by a Suffrage Association, the other by a convention 
which the legislature had summoned. The latter was re- 
jected ; the former was accepted by popular vote ; but not 
having been framed according to the forms of law, it was 
opposed by the state authorities. Its supporters chose 
Thomas W. Dorr governor, who, with an armed force, 
32* 



378 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

attacked the arsenal at Providence, and, failing there, af- 
terwards threw up intrenchments, ten miles off, at Che- 
pachet. Three thousand volunteers marched against this 
post, but found it abandoned ; and so the civil war ended, 
(June, 1842.) A few mouths later, a new constitution, 
providing for the reforms wliich Dorr and his party had 
sought through strife, was adopted. 

Other states were oriranizins: themselves more 

New o o 

states peaceably. Arkansas, the first state admitted since 

and terri- Missouri, (June 15, 183G,) was followed by Michi- 

tories. ' ^ '^ . , -^ 

gan, (January 26, 1837.) Wisconsin, organized 
as a single territory, (183G,) was presently divided as 
Wisconsin and Iowa, (1838.) Then Iowa v.-as admitted 
a state, (March 3, 1845,*) and at the same date Florida 
became a member of the Union. 

Indian Relations with the Indians were frequently dis- 

wars. turbed. A war with the Sacs and Foxes, under 
Black Hawk, broke out on the north-west frontier, but 
was soon brought to an end by a vigorous campaign on the 
part of the United 'States troops and the militia, under 
Generals Scott and Atkinson, (1832.) Another war arose 
with the Semiuoles, under their chief Osceola, in Florida. 
It was attended by serious losses I'rom the beginning, (1835.) 
On the junction of the Creeks with the Seminoles, affairs 
grew still worse, the war extending into Georgia and Ala- 
bama, (1836.) The Creeks were subdued under the direc- 
tions of General Jessup ; but the Seminoles continued in 
arms amidst the thickets of Florida for many years. 

The standing grievance of the United States 

Foreign . . , . , . 

relations: agamst the European powers consisted in the m- 
France. demnities long due for spoliations of American 
commerce. These were at last settled with Denmark, 
Portugal, Spain, and Naples, (1830-4.) But with France 

* Again in 1846, but not actually entering until 1848. 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 379 

there were some high-sounding phrases before our claims 
■wore satisfied. A treaty with the government of Louis 
Philippe fixed the amount at about five millions ; but the 
Chamber of Deputies refused to provide the money, and 
the draft of the United States government for the first in- 
stalment was protested, (1834.) The president proposed to 
Congress to authorize reprisals upon French properly ; 
whereupon the French minister at W^ashington was re- 
called, and the American minister at Paris was offered his 
passports. More phrases followed. Great Britain offered 
mediation, and it was accepted ; but, without waiting for 
it, the French government paid the five millions, (183G.) 
Great Not long after this, we were in trouble with Great 

Britain. Britain. On the outbreak of an insurrection in 
Canada, (1837,) some of our people undertook to join it, 
and encamped on Navy Island, a British possession in the 
Niagara River, to which they transported arms and stores 
in a steamer called the Caroline. This steamer, thougli 
at the time on the American bank of the river, was de- 
stroyed by a British detachment accompanied by Alexan- 
der McLeod, sheriff of Niagara ; and an American citizen 
lost his life in the fray. Three years afterwards, McLeod, 
being in New York, was arrested on a charge of murder 
by the state authorities. The British government demand- 
ed his release, and were sustained by the United States 
administration, on the ground that he had acted as an 
ajrent or soldier of Great Britain. But the authorities of 
New York held fast to their prisoner, and brought him to 
trial. Had harm come to him, his government stood 
pledged to declare war ; but he was acquitted for want of 
preof, (1841.) Congress subsequently passed an act re- 
quiring that similar cases should be tried only before Unit- 
ed States courts. The release of McLeod did not settle 
the buruinnf of the Caroline on the American shore ; this 



880 TAUT IV. 1707-1872. 

still remained. There had been other difficulties with 
Great Britain upon the Maine frontier, Avhere the boun- 
dary line Avas undetermined. Colli.sions took place, and 
the Maine militia and the British troops had been but just 
prevented from fighting, (1839.) !Nor was this all. Far 
away, upon the African coast, British cruisers were claim- 
ing a right to visit American vessels, in carrying out the 
provisions for the suppression of the slave trade. The 
right was asserted in a quiutuple treaty, to which Great 
Britain, France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia were parties, 
(October, 1841 ;) but the United States denied it alto- 
gether. 
,„ ^ Meanwhile William Henry Harrison, the choice 

Treaty •' ' 

ofWash- of the whig party, had succeeded to the presidency, 

" * (March 1841.) On his death, a month after, John 
Tyler, vice president, became president. His secretary of 
state, Daniel Webster, proposed to the British minister at 
Washington to take up the question of the north-eastern 
boundary. The otter led to the appointment by the British 
government of a special envoy in the person of Lord Ash- 
burton, (1842.) Conferences between him and the Amer- 
ican secretary were shared by commissioners from Maine 
and Massachusetts upon all subjects pertaining to the 
boundary, but other points in controversy were separately 
considered. The treaty of W^ashiugton, ratitied by the 
Senate four months afterwards, (August 20,) settled the 
north-eastern boundary ; put down the claim to a right 
of visit, and in i^uch a way as to lead to the denial of the 
claim by European powers who had previously admitted 
it ; provided for the mutual surrender of fugitives from 
justice ; and as to the attair of the Caroline, the British 
envoy made an apology, or what amounted to one. Even 
the old quarrel about impressment was put to rest, not by 
the treaty, but by a letter from Webster to Ashburtou, 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 381 

repeating the rule originally laid down by Jefferson, " that 
the vessel being American shall be evidence that the sea- 
men on board are such," adding, as tlie present and future 
principle of tlie American government, tliat " in every 
regularly documented American merchjiut vessel, the 
crew who navigate it will find their protection in the flag 
which is over them." In short, every difficulty was settled 
by the treaty, or by the accompanying negotiations, except 
one, the boundary of Oregon, on which no serious differ- 
ence had as yet appeared. " I am willing," said Webster 
in the Senate, nearly four years subsequently, '' to appeal to 
the public men of the age, whether, in 1842, and in the city 
of Washington, something was not done for the suppression 
of crime, for the true exposition of the principles of public 
law, for the freedom and security of commerce on the 
ocean, and for the peace pf the world." 
Republic The field was now clear for renewing the agita- 
of Texas. i[q^ Qf ^ measure that had been planned for many 
years. On the south-western frontier, there lay a province 
of Mexico, unoccupied until emigrants from the United 
States began to settle there under Mexican authority, 
(1821.) Time and prosperity increased their numbers, 
and they formed a constitution, with which they sought 
admission, as a federal state, into the republic of Mexico, 
(1833.) The Mexican government refused, and sent a 
force to arrest the officers who had been elected under the 
constitution, and to disarm the people. War, or revolu- 
tion, or both, ensued. The Texan Lexington was Gon- 
zales, where the first resistance was made, (September 28, 
1835.) The Texan Philadelphia was a place called Wash- 
ington, where a convention declared the independence of 
the state, (March 2, 183G,) and adopted a constitution, 
(March 17.) The Texan Saratoga and Yorktown, two in 
one, was on the shores of the San Jacinto, where General 



382 PAKT IV. 1797-1872. 

Houston, commander-in-chief c^f tlic insurgents, gained a 
decisive victory over the Mexican president, Santa Anna, 
(April 21.) Six months afterwards, Houston was chosen 
president of the republic of Texas, (October.) 
p . In his inaugural speech, he expressed the desire of 

of annex- the people to join the United States. Nothing could 
ation. Y)Q more natural. With few exceptions, they came 
from the land to whicli they wished to be reunited. It was 
but natural, for the same reason, that a large number of 
those whom they had left behind them should wish their 
return. There were other motives. Though the Florida 
treaty of 1819 acknowledged the Spanish claim to Texas, 
the United States government did not lose its desire to 
possess the region, and twice attempted to buy it from 
Mexico, into whose possession it had passed. It could 
now be had without buying. Above all, Texas had estab- 
lished slavery where Mexico had abolished it, and where 
the interest of the American slave states, as they thought, 
required it to exist. It was more certain, they reasoned, 
to exist if Texas became one of them. But though these 
impulses were strong, others were stronger for a time. 
That portion of the American people which was set against 
the extension of slavery was, therefore, set against annex- 
ing Texas. That larger portion which adhered to public 
principle, and knew that to annex Texas was to despoil 
Mexico, also stood out against annexation. The indepen- 
dence of Texas was recognized by the United States, (1837.) 
But the same year its application for admission to the 
Union was rejected and withdrawn. 

It was frequently revived. As the anti-slavery 

Revived. i i • i /> 

movement deepened, nothing seemed more nt to 
stem it than the increase of slaveholding territory ; and this 
lay close at hand in Texas. If it were not taken, it might 
cease to be slaveholding ; for Great Britain, as the great 



annexat:-::; cf texas. 383 

abolitionist pov/er, was supposed to entertain tlio design 
of getting Texas under her control, and abolishing slavery 
there. " Few calamities," wrote our secretary of state, 
Upshur, in 1843, "could befall this country more to be 
deplored than the abolition of domestic slavery in Texas." 
"To this continent," wrote Upshur's successor, Calhoun, 
in 1844, " the blow would be calamitous beyond descrip- 
tion." It thus became more and more of a settled purpose 
with the south to force Texas upon the north, or, as one 
of the South Carolina districts presented the alternative,* 
" either to admit Texas into the Union, or to proceed 
peaceably and calmly to arrange the terms of a dissolution 
of the Union." But to this there was something to be said 
on the northern side ; and it was said earnestly, that the 
character of the Union as a republic, founded for freedom 
and for hee institutions, would be lost by acquiring terri- 
tory expressly for slavery. A fresh conflict for and against 
slavery ensued, in which the numbers against it were evi- 
dently on the increase. What the abolitionists could not 
do, the slaveholders and their adherents did, by opening 
the eyes of the people and showing them how near they 
were to the brink of the precipice. 

The majority went forward blindly. A treaty 
Effected. . 

of annexation, concluded by Calhoun as secretary 

of state, was rejected by the Senate in Jime, 1844. Its 
supporters instantly carried the measure into the presiden- 
tial election of that year, casting aside Van Buren, who 
was a candidate for renomination by the democratic party, 
and nominating James K. Polk, chiefly because he was 
committed to immediate annexation. The whigs nomi- 
nated Clay because he l.ad opposed annexation, and when 
he wrote a letter sliowinor himself to be halting between 
two opinions, the life was taken out of his party, and they 
lost the election. As soon as Congress met, resolutions 



384 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

to annex Texas were proposed. Even southern whigs 
objected. " A dangerous and revolutionary precedent," 
said Rives of Virginia. " At the sacrifice of the peace and 
harmony of the Union," said Berrien of Georgia. " If 
we admit that the general government can interpose to 
extend slavery as a blessing, we must also admit that it 
can interfere to arrest it as an evil," said Rayner of 
North Carolina. What the north, or the true representa- 
tives of the north, had to object, need not be repeated. 
The joint resolutions of the two houses of Congress were 
adopted, (March 1, 1845,) approved by the president, 
(March 2,) and accepted by Texas (July 4,) which was 
finally admitted to the Union, (December 29.) No other 
shadow crossed the triumph of slavery tlian a merely ver- 
bal provision that in any states formed out of Texan ter- 
ritory north of the Missouri Compromise line, " slavery 
shall be prohibited." As Texas had no territory north of 
the Compromise Hue, the prohibition had no value. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

War with Mexico. 

As soon as the United States government re- 
solved to annex Texas, the Mexican minister at 
Washington demanded his passports. '' War was the only 
recourse of the Mexican goverument." A few months 
later, (August, 1845,) American troops were moved to Cor- 
pus Christi, and, six months afterwards, (March, 1846,) 
to the Rio Grande, with orders " to repel any invasion of 
the Texan territory which might be attempted by the 
Mexican forces." On the other side, Mexico protested 
altogether against the liue of the Rio Grande. The River 
Nueces, according to Mexican authority, was the boun- 
dary of Texas. Even supposing Texas surrendered by 
the Mexicans, which it was not, they still retained the ter- 
ritory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande — a terri- 
tory containing but few settlements, and those not Texan, 
but purely Mexican. In support of this position, the 
Mexican General Arista was ordered to cross the Rio 
Grande and defend the country against the invader, (April, 
1846.) 

Hostili- As the American troops, some three thousand 
ties. strong, under General Taylor, approached the Rio 
Grande, the inhabitants retired ; at one place. Point Isabel, 
burniug their dwellings. This certainly did not look much 
like Taylor's being on American or on Texan ground. 
But he, obedient to his orders, kept on, until he took post 
33 (385) 



386 TART IV. 1797-1S7-2. 

by the Rio Graiule, opposite the Mexican town of INEata- 
moras, (March 28, 184G.) About a month hiter, (April 24,) 
a Mexican force was sent across the stream, wliea a squad- 
ron of United States dragoons, reconnoitring, fell in with 
a much superior Ibrce, and, after a skirmish, surrendered. 
The next day but one, Taylor, as previously authorized by 
liis government, called npon the states of Texas and Louis- 
iana for five thousand volunteers. As soon as the news 
reached Washington, the president informed Congress that 
*" war exists, and exists by the act of Mexico herself,'' 
(Mav 11.) Congress took the same gromul, an.d gave the 
president authority to call lifty thousand volunteers into the 
tield, (May 13.) It was ten days later, but of course bctbre 
any tidings of these proceedings could have heen received, 
that Mexico made a formal declaration of war, (May 2o.) 
The question as to which nation began hostilities, must 
depend upon the question of the Texan boundary. If this 
was the River Nueces, the United States began the war 
the summer before. If, on the contrary, it was the Rio 
Grande, the Mexicans, as President Polk asserted, were 
the aggressors. 

At the verv time that these hostilities opened 

(.Jrogon * *■ 

contro- there was serious danger of a rupture between the 
vorsy. United States and Great Britain. It sprang from 
conflicting claims to the distant territory of Oregon. Those 
of the United States were based, tirst, upon American 
voyages to the Pacific coast, chiefly one made by Captain 
Gray, in the Columbia, from which the great river of the 
north-west took its name, (1792;) secondly, upon the ac- 
quisition of Louisiana with all the Spanish rights to the 
western shores, (1803 ;) and thirdly, upon an expedition 
under Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Clarke, of the United 
States army, by whom the Missouri was traced towards its 
source, and the Columbia followed to the Pacific Ocean, 



WAR WITH MEXICO. 387 

(1804-G.) Against these, the British government asserted 
various claims of discovery and occupancy. Twice the 
two nations agreed to a joint possession of the country in 
dispute, (1818, 1827;) twice the United States proposed 
a dividing line, once under Monroe, and again under Tyler. 
Tiie rejection of the latter proposal had led to a sort of 
war cry, during the presidential election then p(;nding, 
(1844,) that Oregon must be held. President l^jlk re- 
newed the offer, but on less favorable terms, and it was 
rejected, (1845.) The next year, when matters looked 
darkest. Great Britain made proposals, by which the line 
of forty-nine degrees was made the boundary, tind the 
riirht of navif'atin": the Columbia was secured to the Brit- 
ish, (June 15, 184G.) Thus vanished the prospect of a war 
with Great Britain, in addition to the war with Mexico. 
„ , General Taylor eni^a^^ed the enemy at Palo Alto, 

of north- (May 8,) and Resaca de la Palma, (May 0,) with 

cast of ^ force so inferior, that nrreat alarm had been felt 
Mexico. * , "^ , _ 

about it, and yet he came off victor in both actions. 

The Mexicans at once recrossed the Rio Grande, and Taylor 
followed as far as Matamoras, (May 18.) A long pause 
ensued, to wait for reenforcemeuts, and indeed for plans ; 
the war being wholly unprepared for on the American side. 
At length, with considerably augmented forces Taylor set 
out again, supported by Generals Worth and Wool among 
many other eminent officers. Monterey, a very impor- 
tant place in this part of Mexico, was taken after a three 
days' resistance under General Ampudia, (September 21- 
23.) An armistice of several weeks followed. Subse- 
quently, Taylor marched southward as far as Victoria ; but 
on the recall of a portion of his troops to take part in other 
operations, he fell back into a defensive position in the 
north, (January, 1847.) There, at Buena Vista, he was 
attacked by a comparatively large army under Santa Anna, 



388 PART IT. 1797-1 S72. 

then seneralissimo of Mexico ; but he was again victorious, 
(February 22, 23,) and Santa Anna left him master of 
all the north-eastern country. Six months later, Taylor 
sent a lar^^e number of his remaining men to act elsewhere, 
(August ;) then, leaving General Wool in command, he 
returned to the United States, (November.) 

An expedition, headed by Colonel Doniphan, 

Conquest ^ ' _ •' _ . 

of Chi- marched down upon Chihuahua, taking possession 
huaima. ^^ j^j ^^^^^ (December 27, 1846,) and then, after 
a battle with the Mexicans at the pass of Sacramento, 
(February 28, 1847,) of Chihuahua, the capital, (March 1.) 
Doniphan presently evacuated his conquest, (April.) 
Early in the following year, Chihuahua became the ob- 
ject of another expedition, under General Price, who 
again occupied the town, (March 7, 1848,) defeating the 
Mexicans at the neighboring Santa Cruz de las Rosales, 
(March 16.) 

„ ^ Both Doniphan and Price made their descents 

Conquest ^ 

of New from Xew Mexico, which had been taken possession 
Mexico. q£ ^^ ^j^g Americans under General Kearney in 
the first months of the war, (August, 1846.) Some months 
after, when Kearney had gone to California, and Doniphan, 
after treating with the Navajo Indians, had marched against 
Chihuahua, an insurrection, partly of Mexicans and partly 
of Indians, broke out at a village fifty miles from Santa 
Fe. The American governor, Charles Bent, and many 
others, both Mexicans /ind Americans, were murdered ; 
battles, also, were fought, before the insurgents were re- 
duced, by Price, (January, 1847.) 

Ere the tidings of the war reached the Pacific 

Conquest ° 

of Call- coast, a band of Americans, partly trappers and 
partly settlers, declared their independence of Mex- 
ico at Sonoma, a town of small importance not far from 
San Francisco, (July 4, 1846.) Tlie leader of the party 



WAR WITH MEXICO. 389 

was John C. Fremont, a captain in the United States 
Engineers, who had recently received instructions from his 
government to secure a liold upon California. A few days 
after their declaration, Fremont and his followers joined 
the American Commodore Sloat, who, aware of the war, 
had taken Monterey, (July 7,) and entered the Bay of San 
Francisco, (July 9.) Sloat was soon succeeded by Commo- 
dore Stockton ; and he, in conjunction with Fremont, took 
possession of Ciudad de los Angeles, the capital of Upper 
California, (August 13.) All this was done without oppo- 
sition from the scattered Mexicans of the province, or from 
their feeble authorities. But some weeks later, a few 
braver spirits collected, and, driving the Americans from 
the capital, succeeded likewise in recovering the greater 
part of California, (September, October.) On the approach 
of General Kearney from Xew Mexico, a month or two 
afterwards, he was met in battle at San Pasqual, (Decem- 
ber G,) and so hemmed in by the enemy as to be in great 
danger, until relieved by a force despatched to his assist- 
ance by Commodore Stockton. The commodore and the 
general, joining forces, retook Ciudad dc los Angeles, after 
two actions with its defenders, (January 10, 1847.) A 
day or two later, Fremont succeeded in bringing the main 
body of Mexicans in arms to a capitulation at Cowenga, 
(January 13.) California was again, and more decidedly 
than before, an American possession. Lower California 
Avas afterwards assailed, but under different commanders. 
La Paz and San Jose, both inconsiderable places, were oc- 
cupied in the course of the year. On the opposite shore, 
Guaymas was taken by a naval force under Captain Lava- 
lette, (October,) and Mazatlan by the fleet under Commo- 
dore Shubrick, (November.) It Avas all a series of skir- 
mishes, fought in the midst of lonely mountains and on far- 
stretching shores. 

33* 



390 TART IV. 1797-1872. 

And now to return to the eastern side. From the first, a 
Llockadc of the ports in the Gulf of Mexico was but poorly 
maintained. Then the American fleet embarked upon vari- 
ous operations. Twice was Alvarado, a port to the 

Oppru- 

tions in south of Vera Cruz, attacked by Commodore Con- 
Gulf of uer, and twice it was gallantly defended, (August 7, 

Mexico. 

October 15, 1846.) Then Commodore Perry went 

against Tobasco, a little distance up a river on the southern 

coast ; but, though he took some prizes and some hamlets, 

he did not gain the town, (October 23-26.) The only 

really successful operation was the occupation of Tampico, 

which the Mexicans abandoned on the approach of their 

enemies, (November 15.) 

,^ , Early in the folio wins; sprino; the fleet and the 

March J o i o 

upon city army combined in an attack upon Vera Cruz. An- 
ofMexico. ticipations of success, however high amongst the 
troops and their officers, were not very generally entertained 
even by their own countrymen. Vera Cruz, or its castle of 
San Juan d'Ulloa, liad been asserted, in Europe as well as 
America, to be impregnable ; but a few days' bombardment 
obliged the garrison, under General Morales, to give up 
the town and the castle together, (March 23-26, 1847.) 
Once masters there, the Americans beheld the road to the 
city of Mexico lying open before them ; yet here, again, 
their way was supposed to be beset by insurmountable 
difficulties. They pressed on, nine or ten thousand strong. 
General Scott at their head, supported by many officers of 
tried and untried reputation. Elsewhere, the war had 
been carried into remote and comparatively unpeopled 
portions of the country. Here the march lay through a 
region where m.en would fight for their homes, and where 
their homes, being close at hand, would give them aid as 
well as inspiration. The march upon Mexico was by all 
means the great performance of the war. 



WAR WITH :.iExico. 391' 

Battles -^^^ difficulties soon appeared. At Cerro Gordo, 
oil the sixty miles from Vera Cruz, Santa Anna posted 
thirteen thousand of his Mexicans in a mountain 
pass, to whose natural strength he had added bj fortifica- 
tion. It took two days to force a passage, the Americans 
losing about five hundred, but inflicting a lar greater loss 
on their brave opponents, (April 18-10.) Here, however, 
they paused ; a part of the Ibrce Avas soon to be discharged, 
and Scott decided he Avould make his dismissals and wait 
for the empty places to be filled. He accordingly advanced 
slowly to Puebla, while the Mexicans kept in the back- 
ground, or appeared only as guerillas, (May 28.) The 
guerilla warfare had been foretold as the one insuperable 
obstacle to the progress of the American army ; it proved 
harassing, but by no means fatal. During the delay en- 
suing on land, the fleet in the gulf, under Commodore 
Perry, took Tuspan and Tobasco, both being but slightly 
defended, (April 18— June 15.) At length reeuforcements 
having reached the army, making it not quite eleven 
thousand strong, it resumed its march, and entered the val- 
ley of Mexico, (August 10.) 

In valley There the Mexicans stood, Santa Anna still at 
of Mexico, ^^^^-p iigr^^j^ thirty-five thousand in their ranks, 
regular troops and volunteers, old and yoimg, rich and 
poor, men of every profession and trade, — all joining in 
the defence of their country, now threatened at its very 
heart. Behind the army was the government, endeavoring 
to unite itself, yet still rent and enfeebled to the last degree. 
Even the clergy, chafed by the seizure of church prop- 
erty to meet the exigencies of the state, were divided, if 
not incensed. It was a broken nation, and yet all the 
more worthy of respect for its last earnest resistance to 
the foe. Never had armies a more magnificent country to 
assail or to defend than that into which the Americans had 



392 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

penetrated. They fought in defiles or upon plains, vistas of 
lakes and fields before them, mountain heights nbove them, 
the majesty of nature everywhere mingling with the con- 
tention of man. Fourteen miles from the city, battles be- 
jian at Coutreras, where a Mexican division under General 
Valencia was totally routed, (August 19—20.) The next 
engagement followed immediately, at Churubusco, six miles 
from the capital, Sauta Anna himself being there completely 
defeated, (August 20.) An armistice suspended further 
movements for a fortniglit, when an American division 
under Worth made a successful assault on a range of build- 
ings called Molino del Rey, close to the city. This action, 
though the most sanguinary of the entire war, — both Mexi- 
cans and Americans surpassing their previous deeds, — was 
without results, (September 8.) A few days later, the 
fourth and final engagement in the valley took place at 
Chapultepec, a fortress just above Molino del Rey. With- 
in the lines was the Mexican Military College, and bravely 
did the students defend it, mere boys outvyiug veterans in 
feats of valor ; but the college and the fortress yielded to- 
gether, (September 12-13.) The next day Scott, with 
six thousand five hundred men, the whole of his army re- 
maining in the field, entered the city of Mexico, (Septem- 
ber 14.) 

Wiimot The war had not continued three months, when 
proviso. ^i^Q United States made an overture of peace, (July, 
1846.) It was referred by the Mexican administration to 
the National Congress, and there it rested. In announcing 
to the American Congress the proposal which he had made. 
President Polk suggested the appropriation of a certain 
sum, as an indemnity for any Mexican territory that might 
be retained at the conclusion of the war. In the debate 
which followed, an administration representative from Penn- 
sylvania, David Wiimot, moved a proviso to the proposed 



WAR WITH MEXICO. 393 

appropriation : '' that there shall be neither slavery nor 
involuntary servitude in any territory on the continent of 
America ^vhich shall hereafter be acquired by or annexed 
to the United States by virtue of this appropriation, or in 
any other manner whatsoever." The proviso was hastily 
adopted in the House ; but it was too late to receive any 
action in the Senate before the closing of the session, (Au- 
gust.) In the following session the proviso again passed 
the House, but Avas abandoned by that body on being re- 
jected by the Senate. 

Mexican When the American commissioner, N. P. Trist, 
proviso, jjjgt ti^g commissioners on the part of Mexico, he 
found them reluctant to yield any territory. It weut es- 
pecially against their will to open any to slavery ; their in- 
structions being quite positive on the point that any treaty to 
be signed by them must prohibit slavery in the ceded coun- 
try. " No president of the United State«," replied Com- 
missioner Trist, '* would dare to present any such treaty 
to the Senate." 

Trist was recalled, but he took it upon himself 

Treaty, , ^ 

to remam where he was, and to treat with new 
commissioners, two months after the entrance of the Amer- 
ican army into the city of Mexico. The result of battles 
rather than of negotiations Mas a treaty signed at Guada- 
lupe Hidalgo, a suburb of the capital. By this instrument 
Mexico ceded Texas, New Mexico, and Upper California, 
Avhile the United States agreed to surrender all other con- 
quests, and to pay for those retained the sum of fifteen 
millions, besides assuming the claims of American mer- 
chants aGrainst Mexico to the amount of more than three 
millions, (February 2, 1848.) Ratifications Avere finally 
exchanged at Queretaro, (May 30,) and peace proclaimed 
at Washington, (July 4.) The Mexican territory — that 
is, the portiou which remained — was rapidly evacuated. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Compromise of 1850. 

Old The former domain of the Uoited States was 

domain, gradually organized. Wisconsin came in quietly as 
a state, (May 29, 1848.) Oregon was established as a 
territory after frequent debate upon the exclusion of sla- 
very, and an attempt to extend the line of the Missouri 
Compromise to the Pacific, so that the territory south of 
36° 30' mifjht be considered slaveholdino^. A trouble of 
quite a different sort broke out in connection with Oregon ; 
the Indians of that territory taking up arms, to the great 
peril of its settlers, in the year of its organization, (1848.) 
The next year another territory was peaceably organized 
in Minnesota, (1849.) 

New But with regard to the new domain, there were 

domain, g^ave ditficulties. Eiglit hundred thousand square 
miles of territory had been added by the treaty of Guada- 
lupe Hidalgo to the two millions previously belonging to 
the United States. To any nation this would have been 
an embarrassing accession ; to ours it was almost over- 
wdielming, on account of its relation to slavery. The 
southern people claimed the war as of their making ; its 
spoils, therefore, were for them. Northern men, who 
stood for freedom, declared the war a sufficient evil in itself, 
without entailing the greater evil of slavery extension. 
So one section set itself aojaiust the other on the borders of 

CD 

the new domain. 

(394) 



COMPROMISE OF 1S50. 395 

Free-floii That the feeling in the north had become mueli 
party, stronger, was proved by the formation of a new 
party on the side of freedom. The presidential canvass 
began, and the whig and democratic parties entered into 
it with no other special purpose regarding freedom or 
slavery than to let both alone. But the free-soil party, in 
convention at Buffalo, (August, 1848,) announced " the 
duty of the federal government to relieve itself from all 
responsibility for the existence or continuance of slavery," 
and " the only safe means of preventing the extension of 
slavery . . . to prohibit its extension by act of Congress." 
Public opinion was touched. Tlie whig party, or some of 
its northern leaders, made a show of liberal principles. 
The diimocrats, in spite of being aided by all the patron- 
age of the administration, lost ground. Though not carry- 
ing a single state, or a single electoral vote for their own 
candidate, the free-soilers had much to do with determining 
tlie election of the whig candidate, Zachary Taylor, as less 
hurtful to freedom than his competitor. 
„ ^, When Congress met, in December, the House of 

Root's & ' ' 

resoiu- Representatives, on motion of Joseph M. Root, of 
Ohio, instructed its committee on territories to re- 
port a bill or bills providing territorial governments for 
New Mexico and Calil'oruia, "excluding slavery." A bill 
for California passed the House, but was blocked in the 
Senate on account of the restriction against slavery. 
Conven- Calhoun, Still a senator, prepared an address of 
lion of the souihein members of Congress to their constitu- 

soutliern . -_ <.>.r> s t • -it • ^ ^i 

laoiiibeis®"^^' (January, 1849.) It inveighed agamst the 
of Con- aggressions of the north, particularly its evasion of 
^'^^^^^ the fuiiitive slave law, and its abolitionism, " We 
ask not," wrote Calhoun, " as the north alleges we do, for 
the extension of shivery. That would make a discrimina- 
tion in our favor as unjust and unconstitutional as the dis- 



39C PART IV. 1797-1872. 

crimination they ask against us in their favor. . . . 
What, then, we do insist on is, not to extend slavery, but 
that we shall not be prohibited from immigrating with our 
property into the territories of the United States because 
we are slaveholders." John M. Berrien, a senator from 
Georgia, proposed an appeal to tlie people of the United 
States, instead of one to the south alone ; but the original 
address was adopted, (January 22.) 

Soon after President Taylor entered office, (March, 
niaconsti- 1849,) he Suggested, or adopted the suggestiou of 

others, that the true way to meet the issue was, for 
the Californians to frame a state constitution ; and, to en- 
courage this, a special agent was despatched from Wash- 
ington, (April.) A convention was held in California, 
(October,) and a constitution framed, prohibiting slavery. 
T.lie president communicated it to Congress, according to 
the usual form, (February, 1850.) Why California took 
precedence in these movements, and why the interest in 
her course was much greater than that felt for New Mex- 
ico, or any other part of the national territory, was plain 
enough. In the very same month tliat California was 
ceded to the United States, gold was found on a branch of 
the Sacramento. The whole country was excited. Emi- 
gration to the gold fields, speculation in their products, or 
in the supplies which their workers required, building up 
San Francisco and other cities, became the great business 
enterprises of the time. Such a region — so rich, so at- 
tractive, and bidding fair to be so powerful — was a prize 
beyond any for which the free and the slave states had 
heretofore contended. 

Clay's Before tlie California constitution was sent in, 

resolu- Henry Clay had presented some resolutions in the 

Senate, (January.) They proposed the admission 
of California as a free state, and the prohibition of the 



COMPROMISE OF 1850. 397 

slave trade in the District of Columbia, as concessions to 
freedom, while the other side was to gain the organization 
of the territories without restriction concerning slavery, the 
continuance of slavery in the District, and the enforcement 
of the fugitive slave law. Upon these a long debate en- 
sued. Webster supported them, chiefly on the ground 
that slavery was already excluded from the territories by 
'•' the law of nature, of physical geography." William 
II. Seward, senator from New York, opposed the resolu- 
tions, because their principles were repudiated, as he said, 
by " the law of nature written on the hearts and consciences 
of freemen." 

Compro- 'i'lie Senate appointed a committee of thirteen, 
mise. Clay beiug chairman, by whom the substance of 
his resolutions was reported in three bills. The first ad- 
mitted California as a state, organized New Mexico and 
Utah as territories without any provision for or against 
slavery, and arranged the disputed boundary between New 
Mexico and Texas by a large indemnity to the latter. The 
second provided for the recovery of fugitive slaves. The 
third abolished the slave trade in the District of Columbia, 
(May 8.) 

Itsadop- At the height of the controversy over these bills, 
tiou. President Taylor sickened and died, (July 9.) He 
was succeeded by the vice president, Millard Fillmore, who 
called about him a new cabinet, AYebster at the head, and 
threw the whole weight of the administration in favor of 
the compromise. It was at first rejected. But, on the 
substitution of separate bills for each of the measures pro- 
posed, they were successively adopted by both houses. 
California was admitted a state ; New Mexico and Utah 
were constituted territories, and the payment of ten millions 
to Texas, in consideration of the boundary and other ques- 
tions, was voted ; all on the same day, (September 9.) 
34 



398 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

Nine days after, the fugitive slave bill became a law, 

(September 18 ;) and two days later vStill, the slave trade 

in the District of Columbia was suppressed, (September 20.) 

„ . . The main feature of this compromise was no 

Fugitive ^ '^ 

slave compromise at all. In the fugitive slave act, free- 
'*''*• dom yielded every thing. There was no occasion 

for a new law about fugitives ; only one thousand slaves, or 
one thirtieth of one per cent, of the slave population, 
escaped during this very year. The author of the law now 
passed was believed to have drawn it in terms whicii would 
render its execution impossible, partly to humiliate tlic north, 
partly to exasperate the south by fresh instances of northern 
unfaithfulness to southern claims. The constitution was 
explicit, that a person held to service in one state, escaping 
into another, should be delivered up on claim of the party 
to whom such service might be due ; but it M'as equally ex- 
plicit that no person should be deprived of liberty without 
due process of law. But the act of 1850 provided no pro- 
cess except the hearing of the claim, without admitting 
the testimony of the alleged fugitive, or allowing him the 
benefit of a jury. Its character roused the free states 
from end to end. Whether for slavery or for freedom 
elsewhere, they were, by a large majority, for freedom on 
their own soil ; and now their soil Avas no longer free to 
those who could be claimed as fugitive slaves. Any 
body could be claimed, as experience soon proved ; free 
men and free women could be, whites could be, and they 
could be carried off as slaves. More seizures followed 
throughout the free states in one year from the passage 
of this act than had taken place in all the sixty years 
before. 

Last of O^® ^^ *-*^^ most eminent statesmen has said that 
the com- the compromise of 1850 was a proof of infatua- 
promises. ^^^^^ j^ ^^g wonderlul that the north should sub- 



COMPROMISE OF 1850. 399 

mit to it ; it was impossible that such submission should 
continue. The compromise was the last of its line. Cal- 
houn died before it was carried, (March.) Clay and 
Webster followed the next year but one, (1852.) The 
leaders perished, and their work soon perished after them. 



CHAPTER X. 

Kansas. 

_ The ten years following the Compromise of 

years' 1850 witnessed greater aggression on the part of 
struggle, gij^^very, and greater resistance on the part of free- 
dom. It was a struggle of which the aspect varied from 
year to year, almost from day to day, favorable noAV to one 
side and now to the other, and leaving the issue uncertain 
except to those who believed that the right must win at 
last. 

Tempo- -^^ ^^'''^ ^^'^ Compromise seemed to succeed, 
rary sue- Fugitive slaves were arrested and re-enslaved. 

of*ss of 

compro- Slavery in the District of Columbia was undisturbed, 
miso. Xhe new territories were open to slaveholders and 
their human possessions. The south, it is true, complained 
that her interest had been sacrificed, particularly in regard 
to California, and South Carolina held a convention to 
consider the expediency of secession, (1851.) On the 
other hand, the northern lovers of liberty felt themselves 
and tiieir country disgraced by the concessions that had 
been made, and would have unmade them, were it possi- 
ble, witliout delay. But the people generally accepted the 
situation, and, in the election of 1852, gave a large major- 
ity to tlie democratic candidate, Franklin Pierce, as 
pledged to the execution of the Compromise. It was, at 
least, a temporary success. 

(400) 



KANSAS. 401 

/^Repeal of Singularly enough, the first of the important 
the measures to follow it was the repeal of the Missouri 

Compro- Compromise. Under the leadership of Stephen A. 
miso. Douglas, democratic senator from Illinois, Con- 
gress took up a bill organizing the territories of Kansas 
and Nebraska on " the principle established by the Com- 
promise of 1850," namely, " that all questions relating to 
slavery in the territories and in the new states to be formed 
therefrom, are to be left to the decision of the people residing 
therein," or, as it was also styled, " the principle of non- 
intervention by Congress with slavery in the states and 
territories." To give this principle free play, Douglas 
thought he must do away with the intervention in which 
Congress had formerly indulged, and three weeks after the 
proposal of his bill, he proposed an amendment, by which 
the Missouri Compromise, " being inconsistent with non- 
intervention," vras " declared inoperative and void." The 
bill, as amended, passed the Senate, (March, 1854,) and 
the House, (May,) and thus the territory, which had been 
promised to freedom in return for giving up Missouri, was 
laid open to slavery. 

Ostend Foreign territory was in request for the same 
mani- purpose. Just as the Kansas cloud rose in the 
west, another cloud appeared in the east. By direc- 
tion of the secretary of state, Marcy, the United States 
ministers at London, Paris, and Madrid, met at Ostend to 
consult about the acquisition of Cuba, (October, 1854.) 
The island was wanted for the same reason that Texas 
had been wanted, and that Kansas and Nebraska were 
then wanted, by our slaveholders. The three ministers 
united in a despatch to their principal, urging the purchase 
of Cuba from Spain, and declaring that if Spain should 
refuse to sell, and Cuba, being in her possession, should 
" seriously endanger our internal peace, . . . then, by 
34* 



402 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

every law, human and divine, we shall be justified in 
wresting it from Spain." This manifesto, as it was called, 
received no rebuke from our government. But the repub- 
lican convention, entering upon the next election for the 
presidency, pronounced it a " highwayman's plea," and 
" in every respect unworthy of American diplomacy." 
J ^.^ Meanwhile the question between freedom and 

tion to slavery in Kansas and Nebraska was passing from 

xV ATI ^ AS 

the hands of politicians to those of the people. Im- 
migration set in strongly towards Kansas, the southern 
territory, and therefore the better suited for occupation by 
slaveholders. One column entered chiefly from the neigh- 
boring Missouri, calling themselves Sons of the South, but 
called by their opponents Border Ivuffians ; their object 
being not so much to settle in the territory as to take up 
all the best land and control the elections whenever held. 
Where they struck, there the free-state men, or abolition- 
ists, as termed by their adversaries, determined to make a 
stand. This column, mostly of New Englanders, came 
for the purpose of settling as well as controlling Kansas, 
in order that it might be a home to them and to the freemen 
coming after them. As they had a long way to travel, and 
many difficulties to encounter from the Missourians, in ad- 
dition to all the ordinary difficulty of making distant set- 
tlements, an association, with headquarters in Boston, was 
formed to aid them ; and time soon showed how much 
the aid was needed. It was a grave crisis, not only for 
Kansas, but for the whole country. As that territory cast 
in its lot with freedom or slavery, so, it seemed, would 
Nebraska, so would many another territory as yet un- 
named. 

The first elections went a^^ainsfc the free-state 

Elections. tt i in 

party. Hundreds crossed the border from Missouri, 

voted, triumphed, and recrossed it to their homes. Law- 



KANSAS. 403 

rence, the chief settlement of the New Englanders, had 
three hundred and sixty-nine legal voters. But at the 
election for members of the territorial legislature, (March, 
1855,) seven hundred and eighty-one votes were cast for 
the pro-slavery candidates by a party of Missourians ar- 
riving the evening before, and encamping, with arms and 
cannon, on the outskirts of the town. Such means secured 
a pro-slavery legislature, but were far from overthrowing 
the free party. On the contrary, the governor of the ter- 
ritory, Reeder, though appointed at Washington in the 
interest of slavery rather than freedom, sided with the 
settlers against the borderers, and came out strongly for 
making Kansas a free state. A constitution to that pur- 
pose was framed at Topeka, (October, 1855,) but without 
any immediate hope of its going into operation. A few 
months later, (March, 1856,) a special committee of the 
House of Representatives, sent to investigate affairs in 
Kansas, reported that the elections had been carried by 
organized invasion, the legislature was illegally constituted, 
and the constitution embodied the will of a majority of 
the people. Whereupon the House admitted Kansas as a 
free state ; but the Senate did not agree. 

Left to themselves, the opposing? elements in 
Civil war. .' . . ^^ °^ 

Kansas broke out in civil war. From May to 

September, (1856,) the conflict continued, irregular and 
feeble, yet passionate and destructive. Lawrence was 
attacked by a force of Missourians, South Carolinians, and 
Georgians ; its printing offices were sacked, and its free- 
state hotel was fired, (May 21.) Other towns and villages 
were treated in the same manner, and a few skirmishes 
took place. It was not the extent of the struggle, but its 
mere existence, that alarmed the country. Slavery was 
exciting civil war, and not in Kansas alone. 



404 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, was elected 

Assault 

upon as a free-soiler to the United States Senate in 1851. 
Senator pj-Qj^i the day he took his seat, he contended, some- 

Sumner. , . . „ 

times single-handed, sometimes with a few adher- 
ents, in behalf of the principles which now, more than 
ever, needed all the championship they could command. 
Just as the war in Kansas was breaking out, he delivered 
a speech which he entitled " The Crime against Kansas," 
and in which he arraigned, with pitiless severity, the slave- 
state party and its supporters, (May 19, 20.) Two days 
after, being the next day after the attack upon Lawrence, 
(May 22,) as Mr. Sumner was sitting at his desk, though 
the Senate had adjourned, he was assaulted from behind, 
beaten over the head and back, and thrown senseless upon 
the floor. A representative from South Carolina, abetted 
by two colleagues, another South Carolinian and a Virgin- 
ian, was the assailant. lie was fined three hundred dol- 
lars by a Washington court, censured by the House of 
Representatives, and having resigned in consequence of 
the censure, was reelected by his constituents without op- 
position. On the other hand, the Massachusetts senator, 
whose term was soon to expire, obtained his reelection 
with far less opposition than would have arisen but for the 
Avrong he had suffered. Slavery was not wise in its modes 
of warfare. 

Election The deeper feeling excited throughout the free 
of 185G. states appeared in the presidential election of 1856. 
All that the free-soil party did at the election of 1852 was 
to throw 157,000 votes, without carrying a single state, 
against the Compromise of 1850. Its successor, the re- 
publican party, strong in accessions from tlie broken whigs, 
stronger still in the reaction against Kansas and Ostend, 
numbered 1,350,000 voters, and carried eleven states. 
But the democrats were still in the majority, and elected 



KANSAS. 405 

James Buchanan, the same who, as minister to London, 
had taken part in the Osteud circuUir. 

Dred Soon after his entrauce upon ofRce, (March, 

ycott 1857,) an opinion, which had been reached the year 
before, but reserved, probably for political reasons, 
was pronounced by the Supreme Court of the United States ; 
two judges, McLean and Curtis, dissenting. Dred Scott, 
a slave, carried by his master from Missouri to Illinois 
and Minnesota, married on free soil, had one child born 
there, and was taken back to slave soil, with wife and 
child. After some time he sued for his liberty and theirs. 
The state Circuit Court of Missouri gave sentence in his 
favor ; but appeals were taken to the state Supreme and 
United States Circuit Courts, both of which decided against 
him ; and his case was then carried before the United 
States Supreme Court, at Washington. There the court 
decided that it had no jurisdiction, because no slave, or 
descendant of a slave, could become a citizen of the United 
States, and therefore sue at its tribunals. But though 
without jurisdiction, the court proceeded with an opinion, 
that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, and 
consequently, that a slave did not cease to be one by being 
carried to territory where the Compromise prohibited 
slavery. This opinion committed the judiciary to the same 
course to which the executive and legislature, with occa- 
sional exceptions in the House of Representatives, were 
already pledged against freedom. 

^ , But while the general government became pro- 
Personal o o r 

liberty slavery, many of the state governments were be- 
^^^^' coming anti-slavery. Public sentiment throughout 
the free states was deeply moved by the Kansas struggle, 
and it was not calmed when the president took part with 
the borderers against the settlers, and endeavored to enforce 
a slave-state constitution. But public sentiment had been 



406 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

Still more deeply moved by events in the free states them- 
selves, under the very eyes of their people, whenever the 
fugitive slave law was put into execution ; and this they 
determined to resist. Every state in New England, and 
some of the Western States, from 1850 onwards, passed acts 
which were known as Personal Liberty laws, and by which, 
generally, the state officers were forbidden to aid in the 
arrest or imprisonment of a fugitive slave. 

Another shadow crossed the country in the com- 

Commer- •' 

ciai mercial crisis of 1857. Like that of twenty years 

crisis, jjefore, it was the result of speculation carried be- 
yond all bounds of prudence, not to say honesty. Specie 
payments were again suspended, and all material interests 
suffered. 

The territory of Utah, organized under the Com- 
promise of 1850, had been occupied only by Mor- 
mon settlers. On the appointment of a governor, and other 
territorial officers, (1857,) the Mormons refused obedience, 
but yielded on the approach of a large body of troops, 
(1858.) 

Meanwhile the jjulf between freedom and slavery 

Mont- , *= . . -^ 

cjomery was growing greater. At a commercial convention 
conven- ^f slaveholdino^ states, in Montgomery, Alabama, 
(May, 1858,) nothing excited more mterest than the 
report of a committee in favor of re-opening the African slave 
trade. The south needed more slaveholders ; to have them 
she must have more slaves. She was losing Kansas and 
the national territories because she could not occupy them ; 
her slave population being needed at home, there was 
none to spare for emigration. It did not suit slave- 
holders to lower the value of their property in slaves by 
importation, and the majority voted to lay the report on 
the table. 



KANSAS. 407 

Lincoln's Almost at the same time, (June,) a speech was 

t made at Sprin;xfield, Illinois, by Abraham Lincolu, 

Seward's . . . . 

predic- as the republican candidate for a seat in the United 

tious. States Senate. His position -vvas the more strik- 
ing because his competitor, Douglas, was identified with 
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and its bitter con- 
sequences. " I believe," said Lincoln, at the outset, " this 
government cannot permanently endure half slave and half 
free." His friends entreated him to suppress the prediction, 
but he would not, and in after years declared that it was 
one of his wisest actions. A few months later, (October,) 
Mr. Sewai-d made another prediction, at Rochester, N. Y. 
*' It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and en- 
during forces, and it means that the United States must 
and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a slave- 
holding nation or entirely a free-labor nation." 

, , Early in the same vear, one of the Kansas free- 

John - . ' 

lirown's state leaders, John Brown, told his friends in New 
raids. England that he had been intending for twenty 
years to make a descent among slaveholders for the pur- 
pose of liberating their slaves. At the end of the year, 
(December, 1858,) he made his first attempt on the bor- 
ders of Missouri, and, as he said, '^Avithout the snapping 
of a gun on either side," took eleven slaves, whom he con- 
ducted to Canada. Although tiiis act was disapproved even 
by his neighbors in Kansas, aa ho had suflTered so much 
from Missouri slaveholders. Brown was encouraged to re- 
peat it in another quarter and on a larger scale. "Twenty 
men in the Alleghanies," he had stated, " could break 
slavery in pieces in two years;" and he now had twenty- 
one, whom he led towards the Alleghanies, seizing Harper's 
Ferry and its arsenal on the way, (October 16, 1859.) 
" I never," he said afterwards, " did intend murder, or 
treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite slaves to 



408 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

rebellion or to make insurrection." His design, he insisted, 
was " to free the slaves." He held the arseual for thirty- 
three hours, when, almost all his followers being killed, 
wounded, or scattered, and the troops, United States ma- 
rines, and Virginia militia, gathering in overwhelming force, 
he surrendered. He was imprisoned, tried, and executed, 
(December.) A few years before, and such an act as his 
would have been all but universally condemned. Now, 
through the free states, it was, to a great degree, excused, 
and to some degree admired. 

jfe^y The nation made a fresh purchase of territory 

states. in 1853, when the Mesilla Valley, or southern Ari- 
zona, containing about thirty thousand square miles, was 
bought of Mexico for ten million dollars. Minnesota was 
admitted a state in 1858, Oregon in 1859, and Kansas, with- 
out a slave, in January, 1861. But before the admission of 
Kansas to the Union, the Union had been broken. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Secession. 

Lincoln ABRAHAM LiNCOLN was Dominated by the repub- 
oiected lican party, and, after a most stirring canvass, was 
' elected, over three competitors, to the presidency, 
(November 6, 1860.) His election signified the restora- 
tion of the executive branch of the government to the side 
of freedom. 

As such, it roused the other side to desperate 
Carolina action. The legislature of South Carolina, meet- 
prepares JQg^ ^i^g (j^y i^efoie the election, to cast the electoral 
to secede. ° '' 

vote of that state, received a message from the gov- 
ernor recommending the immediate call of a convention 
to adopt the only alternative within reach, and take the 
state out of the Union. Speeches in and out of the legis- 
lature expressed the same opinion, and when the news of 
Lincoln's election arrived, (November 7,) it was hailed 
with rejoicing, as opening the way to secession, not only in 
South Carolina, but in all other southern states. Five days 
later, (November 12,) the legislature called a convention 
to meet in the middle of December. 

The legislature of Georgia assembled the day 
iiii? in but one after the election, (November 8.) Many of 
Georgia. .^^ members were impatient to follow the lead of 
South Carolina ; but others hesitated, some refused. The 
majority were able to carry a bill appropriating a million 
to arm the state, (November 13,) and everything appeared to 
35 (409) 



410 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

be in train for secession. At this point, Alexander H. 
Stephens, who had long represented Georgia in Congress, 
came before the legislature to warn them against proceed- 
ing farther. " In my judgment," he said, " the election 
of no man, constitutionally chosen to the presidency, is 
suthcient cause for any state to separate from the Union. 
. . . The president can do nothing unless he is backed 
by power in Congress. The House of Representatives is 
largely in the majority against Mr. Lincoln. In the Senate 
he will also be powerless. . . . Why, then, I say, 
should we disrupt the bonds of this Union when his hands 
are tied? . . . Let the fanatics of the north break the 
Constitution if such is their fell purpose ; . . . but let 
not the south, let not us, be the ones to commit the aggres- 
sion." Yet, against his own warning, and as if to render 
it ineffectual, Mr. Stephens proposed a convention, and 
four days after (November 18) a bill calling such a body 
w^as passed. 

Presi Other states were doing, or preparing to do, like- 

dent's wise, and the whole country was conscious of peril 
message, ^j^^g r^^ hand, when Congress met, and received 
the annual message of the president, (December 3.) Few, 
if any, could have expected help from it ; few, therefore, 
were disappointed. Mr. Buchanan argued that the elec- 
tion which had just occurred was no sufficient cause for 
the movements in South Carolina and elsewhere. But 
they might be regarded as justified by the personal liber- 
ty laws, and could certainly be accounted for by the agi- 
tation against slavery in which many of the people had 
lon<; allowed themselves to share. As for the means to 
meet the existing danger, the president thought that Con- 
gress had no power to coerce a state, that is, to prevent its 
secession or compel its return to the Union. But Con- 
gress could adopt some ameuUmeuts of the Constitution, 



SECESSION. 411 

and recommend their adoption by the states, securing 
shivery, not only in the slave states, but in the territories, 
and, so far as fugitives were concerned, in the free states 
themselves. But the message fell dead as soon as de- 
livered. 

/: c tten Congress plunged into the conflict. The southern 
den com- members spoke with pride of what their constitu- 
promise. ^^^^ were doing, and the more reckless their course, 
the nobler it seemed. On the other hand, the northern 
members faltered : what their constituents were doinsr was 

'" uncertain, what they might do was more uncertain still, 
and every thing on their side continued in suspense. 
After a fortnight of wrangling, a joint resolution was laid 
before the Senate by John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky. 
This proposed to amend the Constitutiou, in order to re- 
store the line of 36° 30' between the free and the slave 
states, and to extend it to the Pacific shore, and further, to 
secure the execution of the fugitive slave law, and to pro- 
vide, that when it could not be executed, the value of the 
fugitive should be paid to the claimant from the United 
States treasury. This was called a compromise. 

On the same day that Crittenden brought for- 
Secession '' ° 

of South ward his resolution, (December 17,) the conven- 
Caroiina. jJq^ of South Carolina assembled. Southerners 
from almost every state, commissioners from Alabama and 
Mississippi, came to urge haste ; only an address from fifty- 
two members of the Georgia legislature urged delay, and 
this address was not made public. No one doubted the 
result. '^ The secession of South Caroliua," as a member 
of the convention said, " is not an event of a day. It is 
not any thing produced by Mr. Lincoln's election, or by 
the non-execution of the fugitive slave law. It has been 
a matter which has been gathering head for thirty years." 
Four days from the opening, a committee reported, and 



412 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

the convention adopted, without a dissenting vote, " an 
ordinance to dissolve the Union between the State of South 
Carolina and other states united with her under the com- 
pact entitled the Constitution of the United States of 
America." In the evening of the same day, the governor 
and legislature being invited to witness the ceremony, the 
ordinance was signed by every delegate, and then pro- 
claimed by the president of the convention, who declared 
that " the State of South Carolina is now and henceforth 
a free and independent commonwealth." Greater exulta- 
tion never sat upon southern lips than at the moment when 
South Carolina threw herself into the abyss of secession, 
and called it independence. 

Anders ^^^^ Same Spirit prevailed throughout the south, 
at Fort It suffered no check from Washington, where the 
Sumter, uj^tjonal authorities made less ado about the secession 
of a state than they had been wont to make about the admis- 
sion of one. In many of the public offices, and throughout 
the capital, more was said for South Carolina than against 
her attempt to destroy the Union. Only in one spot where 
the government was represented, and tliat the nearest to 
the scene of insurrection, was the will of the insurgents 
opposed. Major Robert Anderson had been for two 
months in command of a garrison numbering little more 
than eighty men, including a band, at Fort Moultrie, not 
quite four miles from Charleston. After the calling of the 
convention, he asked the war department to occupy Castle 
Pinckney, close by Charleston, and Fort Sumter, on an 
island in the harbor, three miles and a half from the city. 
General Scott, the head of the army, advised compliance ; 
but the majority of the cabinet refused, and the secretary 
of state, Lewis Cass, resigned in indignation. After the 
secession ordinance, Anderson wrote, suggesting Fort 
Sumter as a stronger position than that he held at Fort 



SECESSION. 413 

Moultrie, and, receiving no reply from AYashington, took 
the responsibility, and moved his garrison, Avith the women 
and children belonging to them, to Fort Sumter, on the 
evening of the day after Christmas. " He has opened 
war," said one of the Charleston journals. " His holding 
Fort Sumter is an invasion of South Carolina," said an- 
other. The new commonwealth ordered the other forts 
to be occupied, the arsenal, post-office, custom-house, and 
revenue cutter, in short every remaining possession, to be 
seized. Tiiis relieved the president, as he said, from the 
necessity he at first thought himself under of ordering 
Anderson out of Sumter, and on his refusing to give such 
an order, the secretary of war, a Virginian, resigned, 
and a patriotic Kentuckian, Joseph Holt, was appointed, 
from Avhom Anderson received a despatch approving his 
act as " every way admirable, alike for its humanity 
and patriotism, as for its soldiership," (December 31.) 
A week later a resolution of similar tone Avas passed by 
the House of Representatives. Major Anderson had taken 
the first step towards preserving tlie Union. 

Under the inspiration of what he had done, the 
Star of ^ _ 

the government determined upon sending him reeuforce- 

ments ; and in order to avoid publicity, they were 
embarked at New York, upon a passenger steamer, the 
Star of the West. On its arrival off Charleston harbor, 
it tried to pass the bar with the soldiers under hatches ; 
but its mission had been betrayed, and though it bore the 
United States flag, fire was opened from Fort Moultrie 
and Morris Island, as well as from an armed vessel. An- 
derson, beinn- under orders not to fire unless attacked, 
could not interfere, and the Star of the West, being unable 
to return fire or to pass the batteries, put back to sea, 
(January 0, 1861.) 
35* 



414 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

s c Bion ^^ ^^^® selfsame day, Mississippi seceded, fol- 
of other lowed in the course of the same month by Florida, 
states. Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana, and on the first 
of February by Texas. None of the conventions in these 
states were unanimous in favor of secession, and that in 
Alabama threw a vote of thirty-nine out of one hundred 
against it. The secession of Texas was followed by the 
most shameless treachery, even of those treacherous days. 
General Twiggs, next in rank to General Scott, and in- 
trusted with nearly half the army of the United States, 
besides posts of great importance, and stores of great value, 
surrendered the whole to commissioners appointed by the 
Texan convention, (February 18.) Out of all the twenty- 
five hundred whom Twiggs betrayed, not one common 
soldier deserted to the seceders. Many officers were faith- 
less, as many both of the army and navy, at home and 
abroad, had already proved, and continued to prove. 

On the hist day of January, wlien six states had 

Peace '' . 

convea- left the Union, and a seventh was just leaving, a 
convention assembled at Albany. It was called 
as a democratic state convention, but other parties, past 
or present, were represented iu it. " We meet here," said 
the president, Judge Parker, " as conservative men. . . . 
The people of this state," he continued, " demand ihe 
peaceful settlement of the questions that have led to dis- 
union. They have a right to insist that there shall be 
conciliation, concession, compromise." " We are advised," 
said Governor Seymour, " that if force is to be used, it 
must be exerted against the united south. . . . Let us 
see if successful coercion by the north is less revolutionary 
than successful secession by the south." Such was the 
sentiment of conservative men throughout the country. 
If they condemned secession, they also condemned every 
measure by which it could be resisted. One more eifort 



SECESSION. 415 

of pacification was made in a peace conference, represent- 
ing twenty-one states, at Washington. . Meeting on the 
4th of February, and continuing until tlie 27th, the con- 
ference debated various projects, and finally determined 
upon recommending Congress to submit to the States 
au Amendment of the Constitution, substantially the same 
as the Critteuden compromise. 
Confeder- ^"^ther body met on the 4th of February, at 

ate gov- Montgomery, Alabama. Six states, soon seven, 
ernment. , . i i . i 

were represented in a congress, by which a consti- 
tution was framed, and au executive appointed, Jefferson 
Davis, of Mississippi, being elected president, and Alex- 
ander II. Stephens, of Georgia, vice president, of the Con- 
federate States of America. Tiie acceptance of the vice 
presidency by a man who had resisted secession less than 
three months before, shows how thoroughly the Union feel- 
ing in the seceded states was extinguished. The president 
hud ])een a secessionist from the start. As he cow trav- 
elled towards Montgomery, he spoke again and again to 
shouting crowds of their brilliant prospects. '' If war 
must come," he said, " it must be upon northern, and not 
upon southern soil. . . . We will carry war where it 
is easy to advance, where food for the sword and tor(;h 
awaits our armies in the densely populated cities." But 
he did not believe the north would fight, while he was sure 
that all the slaveholdiug states would join the Confederacy, 
and that their independence would be recognized by Eng- 
land and France. In his inaugural address, the probabil- 
ity of war was admitted. " We have entered upon a 
career of independence, and it must be inflexibly pursued 
througli many years of controversy with our late associates 
of the Northern States." In the month following, when 
Vice President Stepliens returned from Montgomery, he 
spoke concerning his government to a great meeting at 



416 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

Savannah. " Its foundations are laid," lie said ; " its cor- 
ner-stone rests upon the great truth that the negro is not 
equal to the white man ; that slavery, subordination to the 
superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This 
our new government is the first in the history of the 
world based upon this great physical, pliilosophical, and 
moral truth. . . . May we not look with confideuce to 
the ultimate universal acknowledgment of the truths upon 
which our system rests? " 

, . , While tlie president of the Confederate States 

on the journeyed to Montgomery, the presidentelect of 
w-^shhK-^ the United States Avas on his way to Washington, 
tou. He took leave of his neighbors at Springfield, Illi- 
nois, in one of the most touching speeches ever made, 
saying that he was assuming a burden greater than had 
been laid upon any before him except Washington, and 
that he must depend upon Divine assistance. As he trav- 
elled on, he spoke sometimes gayly, but oflener gravely, of 
the situation, insisting that " nobody is sulFering any thing," 
and that '' the people on both sides must keep their self-posses- 
sion." As he raised the American flag over Independence 
Hall, in Philadelphia, on Washington's birthday, he said, 
"■ I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or 
idea it was that kept this confederacy so long together ; " 
he was alluding to the revolution. '• It was not the mere 
matter of the separation of the colonies from the mother 
land, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence which gave liberty not alone to the people of this 
country, but I hope to the world for all future time. . . . 
If this country cannot be saved without giving up that 
principle, I was about to say that I would rather be assas- 
sinated on this spot than surrender it." He was aware at 
that moment of a plot to assassinate him as he passed 
through Baltimore, and to avoid the danger he made the 
rest of the journey to Washington by night. 



SECESSION. 417 

inaugu- His inauguration was protected by an unusually 
ration, large body of troops agaiust the violence which 
was believed to be intended, (March 4.) The most strik- 
ing passage in the president's address was the following ; 
*' We find the proposition that in legal contemplation the 
Union is perpetual, confirmed by the history of the Union 
itself. The Union i.s much older than the Constitution. It 
was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. 
It was matured and continued in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith 
of all the then thirteen states expressly plighted and en- 
gaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Con- 
federation in 1777 ; and finally in 1787, one of the declared 
objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was 
to form a more perfect union. But if the destruction of 
the Union, by one or by a part only of the states, be law- 
fully possible, the Union is less than before. ... I 
ilicrefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the 
laws, the Union is unbroken ; and to the extent of my abil- 
ity I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly 
enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union shall be faith- 
fully executed in all the states." He concluded, '' In ypur 
hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, 
is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will 
not assail you, . . . We are not enemies, but friends. 
We must not be enemies." 

History has few such contrasts as this between 
Contrast. ^^^^ ^^^.^^ magistrate of the United States and the 
leaders of tlie seceded states. In all their positions, in 
their views of their own principles and of the principles 
which they must combat, in their puiposes and their ex- 
pectations, there is something of the same difference as 
that dividing the day and the night. Tiiat such a man as 
Abraliam Lincoln represented the Union, and stood ready 



418 PART IV. 1797-1G72. 

to live cr die for it, was one of the greatest blessings which 
God has bestowed upon this nation. 

Attempt -^ week after the new administration began, two 
v.t ncyo- men, claiming to be commissioners from the gov- 
tiation. gj-Qi^gQi; of the Confederate States, informed the 
secretary of state, Mr. Seward, that they were instructed 
to make overtures for the opening of negotiations. To 
their letter the secretary replied in a memorandum, the 
mam point being that he " cannot act upon the assumption, 
or in any way admit, that the so-called Confederate States 
constitute a foreign power with whom diplomatic relations 
ought to be established," (March 15.) 
_ ,„ ^ A more anxious question had come up the 

Relief of ^ * 

Fort very day after the inauguration. Major Anderson 
Sum er. ^^^^ g^jjj j^ Fort Sumter. Pie had sent away 

the women and children towards the end of January, All 
around the fort, on both sides of the harbor, extended 
the batteries of the South Carolinians and their comrades 
from other states. Thousands in arms kept watch upon 
the eio-hty men within the fort, to whom no succor had 
been sent since the Star of the West had been driven back. 
At the end of February, Anderson w^rote to the war de- 
partment that twenty thousand men would be needed in 
order to reenforce him before his provisions were exhaust- 
ed, and this letter was laid before the cabinet. General 
Scott concurred in the opinion, and stated that the govern- 
ment had no such force at its control, and could have none 
in season to relieve the garrison. The president seems to 
have acquiesced, but only for a time ; giving up Fort 
Sumter, as he afterAvards declared, was " our national de- 
struction commenced." He sent an officer directlv to 
Major Anderson, who said that he could hold out till the 
loth of April ; and on receiving this assurance, the presi- 
dent determined to relieve him. A few days later, (April 4,) 



SECESSION. 419 

a written order was given, and a message was sent to 
inform the governor of South Carolina that, if provisions 
were suffered to reach the fort, no troops would be intro- 
duced. Several vessels, with both troops and provisions, 
sailed from New York and Norfolk within the next few days. 
They arrived, (April 11, 12,) uncertain whether they were 
bringing peace or war, and found war before them. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Civil War. 

First Period. — April, 1861, to January, 1863. 

-^ .. , All the other forts and possessions of the United 
Fort States that had been seized by the seceders, were 
um er. j.j^^ ^^^^^ .^ their mouths while Fort Pickens, near 
Pensacola, under Lieutenant Slemmer, and Fort Sumter 
held out against them. The news that an attempt would be 
made to provision Fort Sumter determined the confederate 
authorities to order its reduction by General Beauregard, 
ia command of the forces at Charleston. " Unless you 
sprinkle blood in the face of the people of Alabama," said 
an Alabamiau to Jefferson Davis, " they'll be back into 
the old Union in less than ten days." Beauregard at once 
called upon Anderson to surrender, and on being met by a 
refusal, renewed the demand, with notice that unless it 
were complied with, fire would be opened. At half past 
four on the following morning, (April 12,) the first shot 
was fired, and for thirty-three hours, one hundred and 
twenty cannon kept up the bombardment. Anderson made 
no reply till seven in the morning, and closed his port- 
holes at dark, renewing fire early the next day ; but though 
husbanding his strength, it was worn down, not only at 
the guns, but amidst the flames Avhich repeatedly broke out 
within the Avails. On the second da\', the men breathed 
only by covering their faces with wet cloths ; and to save 

(420) 



CIVIL WAR. 421 

themselves from utter destruction they were forced to throw 
over the powder which had been taken from the magazine, 
v/hile but three cartridges were left, and no more could be 
made on account of the fiery shower to which every part 
of the fort was now exposed. The vessels eent to relieve 
the orarrison had been seen off the harbor at noon on the 
first day, but they could bring no other relief than the 
sense of their being comparatively near, and the garrison 
fought on. At half past one in the afternoon of the second 
day, a volunteer flag of truce appeared, and various mes- 
sages followed between Anderson and Beauregard. The 
major would not surrender, but would evacuate ; that is, 
he would leave the fort with company and private prop- 
erty, and, above all, the flag, which he must have the priv- 
ilege of saluting when it was lowered. To these terms 
Beauregard at length consented. They were carried into 
effect the following day, (April 14.) Anderson saluted 
his flag, and embarked his men on a Charleston steamer, 
by M'hich they were taken to the United States steamer 
Baltic, off the harbor, while Te Deums were sung in the 
Charleston choirs, and sermons of victory were preached 
from the pulpits ; for it was Sunday. But the rejoicings 
of the Carolinians had begun the night before, when their 
governor bade them exult that the flag which had tri- 
umphed for seventy years had been " humbled before the 
glorious little State of South Carolina." There was at 
least one reason to rejoice — that the bombardment had not 
cost a human life on cither side. 

A proclamation, dated April 15, by the presi- 
^^""°°*dent, called forth the militia of the several states 
to the number of 75,000, " in order to suppress combina- 
tions " in the seceded states, and also summoned both 
houses of Congress to meet on the 4th of July. The 
militia instantly obeyed. First to reach Washington were 
36 



422 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

three Pennsylvania companies, but these came unarmed, 
(April 18 ;) the first to come armed were the Massachusetts 
sixth, which received enthusiastic greeting along the route 
until reaching Baltimore, where a mob opposed their march, 
and lives were lost in forcing a passage through the city. 
Massachusetts blood, first to be shed in the war for inde- 
pendence, was the first to be shed in the war for union, 
and on the same day of the year, April 19. Other regi- 
ments followed ; but the way through Washington was 
blocked, and until another was opened by the Chesapeake 
and from Annapolis, AYashington was cut oft' from its com- 
munications. Difficulty and danger only increased the 
spirit of the loyal people. AVhile the militia gathered, and 
went forward to the capital, other men subscribed, labored, 
and served as efficiently as if under arms. Women aided 
in making up supplies, and children brought their offerings. 
The national flag was raised on every public, and almost 
every private building ; national badges were every where 
worn ; national songs were every where sung. Meetings 
were held, and if speeches could have saved the country, 
it was safe. All spoke alike ; the conservative and the 
radical for once used the same language, and speakers and 
listeners united in one universal expression of fidelity to 
the Union. This was the uprising of the north. That of 
the south was the same in fervor. Derisive laughter 
greeted the president's proclamation at Montgomery. De- 
fiance was the reply to it from every point in the seceded 
states, and almost every point in the slaveholding states 
which had not seceded. One hundred guns were fired at 
Richmond to celebrate the fall of Fort Sumter. A few 
days later, and the Virginia convention, which had been 
in session two months, resolved that an ordinance of seces- 
sion should be submitted to popular vote. But without 
waiting for the vote, the secessionists seized the national 



CIVIL WAR. 423 

arsenal at Harper's Ferry and the national navy-yard at 
Norfolk, and placed the state in immediate hostility to 
the Union. It was considered a great triumph that Vir- 
ginia, with all her associations and resources, should en- 
ter the Confederacy, and her capital become the capital of 
the new government. Nothin?^' now remained in the south 
under the flag of the United States but Fortress Monroe 
in Virginia and three forts in Florida — Fort Pickens near 
Pensacola, Fort Taylor at Key West, and Fort Jefferson 
in the Tortugas. These, it was believed, would soon fall, 
and more than these. Vice President Stephens, as he 
hastened to Richmond, divulged the purpose of an attack 
on Washington, and the confederate secretary of Avar 
promised that the confederate flag should float over the 
dome of the Capitol before the first of May, 
More se- The Secession of Virginia was followed, after 
cession, gome delay, by Arkansas, Tennessee, and North 
Carolina, (May.) All of them had been out of the Union 
in spirit long before they left it in the letter. Every slave- 
holding state was now gone but Delaware, Maryland, 
Kentucky, and Missouri, and the last two of these were in 
dansrer of going, while the first two showed little resolution 
in staying. 

Rebellion Before all the eleven had seceded, — in fact from 
or war. the moment that fire opened upon Fort Sumter, — 
a question arose as to the character of the conflict. If the 
government could treat it purely as a rebellion, not as a 
war, then the seceders would be in danger of being regard- 
ed by foreign powers as rebels without the rights which 
international law accords to belligerents. But the presi- 
dent allowed them these rights without intending it, when 
he proclaimed the determination of the government to 
blockade the southern ports, (April 19,) for a government 
is considered to close its own ports, but to blockade only 



424 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

the ports of another power with whom it is at war. The 
proclamatioQ of blockade was therefore held to involve 
the recosfnition of the Confederate States as bellio-erents on 
the part of the United States, and to justify other nations 
in makings the same recoo^nition. Great Britain was the 
first to make it. Without waiting the arrival of the newly- 
appointed American minister, Charles Francis Adams, 
though he was known to be on his way to London, the 
queen's proclamation of neutrality (May 13) gave the 
same belligerent rights to the disloyal as to the loyal states 
of the Union. France took the same course, (June 11.) 
Her ruler, Napoleon III., was soon known to be in favor 
of even stronger action, and to press upon the British gov- 
ernment the recognition of confederate independence ; but 
to this length Great Britain refused to go. 
„ Tiie war thus openiun- may be divided into 

riods of two periods ; the first from April, 1861, to January, 
the war. jg(53^ Avhen the cause of the struggle was reached 
by the emancipation of the slaves in the seceded states ; 
and the second to April, 18G5. "VYe can here observe only 
the salient movements of the two. 

The first marked success on the national side 

Lyon's 

defence of was gained by Captain Nathaniel Lyon. He held 
Missouri. ^1^^ United States arsenal at St. Louis with a gar- 
rison of a few hundred regulars, and on receiving author- 
ity from the president, he enlisted several thousand volun- 
teers, chiefly among the German population, who were 
readier than the native citizens to defend their state against 
secession. The governor of Missouri, sympathizing with 
the native, not the German spirit, ordered the state militia to 
encamp near St. Louis, with ill-concealed designs against 
the Union troops. On hearing that guns and ammunition 
had been brought to the state camp, Lyon drove thither in 
disguise, satisfied himself that the report was true, and 



CIVIL WAR. 425 

returned to lead out his force at once against the militia. 
They yielded to his superior numbers, and surrendered 
themselves, their munitions and their canip, without a shot 
in resistance. But as Lyon was bringing back his prison- 
ers, a mob from St. Louis fired upon his men, who fired in 
return, and but for his orders to cease firing, many would 
have lost their lives. Among those who fell was an oflTicer, 
to whose widow Lyon said, " Since my boyhood it has al- 
ways been my highest wish to die as your husband has ; " 
and the words were fuel to the patriotic flame he had al- 
I'eady kindled. The effect of Lyon's mastery over the 
Missouri secessionists was heightened by the associations 
of the day, for it was the anniversary of that on which 
Ethan Allen and his comrades mastered Ticonderoija, 

CD ' 

May 10, 1775, the first marked success of the revolution. 
Lyon was promoted to be a general, and continued to de- 
fend Missouri against secession, until his life-long wish 
was gratified, and he fell in battle at Wilson's Creek, 
(August.) He left all his property to the government 
which he had heroically served. 
,„ .„. Down to the secession of Vir^ijinia, the secedin*? 

A\ est Vir- => ' ° 

ginia for states had appeared to be a unit. If opposition 
theUnion. ^^.^^^ tried, it soon broke down and vanished, some- 
times because the Unionist believed it to be his duty to 
obey his state, but more frequently because he was out- 
numbered or overborne. But a large portion of Virginia, 
embracing the western counties, where soil and climate 
were unfavorable to slave labor, refused to be dragged out 
of the Union. Two conventions were held at Wheeling, 
the first before tlic ordinance of secession was ratified, the 
second afterwards, and in this West Virginia was declared 
independent of Virginia, and placed under a provisional 
state government, (June.) Meantime the Union arms had 
been successful against the confederates, who vainly cn- 
36* 



426 PART IV. 1797-1 S72. 

deavored to keep their hold on what they considered a 
rebellious population, and the campaign continued unfavor- 
able to them, (July.) General McClellan was in command 
of the national forces. The civil movement, however, 
was far more striking than the military, and gave much 
greater encouragement to the government and its support- 
ers. West Virginia was formally admitted to the Union 
in June, 18G3. 

East Ten- The Same character of soil and climate extends 
nessee. soutli-west from West Virginia to East Tennessee. 
There, too, the loyalty of the people was unbroken ; aud 
though they did not declare, they really maintained their 
independence of the state authorities which joined the 
confederates. It was late in the course of the war before 
the Union armies occupied East Tennessee. 
Extreme The war had but begun when its pressure be- 
measures. ^ame unexpectedly severe. Volunteers were soon 
(May 3) called for, to serve for three years, instead of the 
three months required of the militia. Large numbers of 
vessels were taken up for transportation and blockade, 
while plans of a new navy were rapidly prepared. Vast 
quantities of arms, munitions, clothing, and stores were 
ordered, and demands upon the national resources increased 
beyond all previous experience. Yet greater sacrifices 
were thought necessary, and the government laid its grasp 
upon some of the highest rights of the citizen. In all the 
chief cities of the loyal states, at one and the same mo- 
ment, the telegraphic messages received at the different 
offices during the previous year, were seized by United 
States marshals, (April 20,) in order to alarm, if not ac- 
tually punish, such as had been accomplices in secession. 
A week later (April 27) the president authorized General 
Scott to suspend the privilege of habeas corpus, on the 
military line between Philadelphia and Washington. Un- 



CIVIL WAR. 427 

der this warrant, the officer iu command of Fort McHeury, 
near Baltimore, refused to obey a writ directing him to 
produce tlie person of a Maryhind militia-man, (May 14.) 
Still more resolute was the action of General Cadwalhider, 
<;omnianding the Maryland department, in refusing to 
obey the writ of the chief justice of the United States in 
favor of John Merryman, a member of the Maryland legis- 
lature and when the chief justice issued a second writ, 
directing the United States marshal to arrest the general 
for contempt of court, the marshal was not allowed to 
enter Fort McIIenry, (May 25.) These were the first 
measures in a course which many of the most loyal men 
in the country lamented. The constitution provides that 
habeas corpus may be suspended in case of rebellion, but 
not by whom it may be suspended. Whether the president 
possessed the power of suspension was questionable ; but 
he continued to exercise it, and Congress ultimately sus- 
tained him. Another measure was received with more 
general approbation. The secretary of war directed Gen- 
eral Butler, in command of Fortress Monroe, to refrain 
from surrendering to alleged masters any persons who 
might come within his lines, (May 30.) This was in 
answer to advices from the general that he had refused to 
surrender certain fugitives from Hampton, because em- 
ployed, or about to be employed, on confederate fortifica- 
tions. " They are contraband of war," he said, at another's 
suggestion ; " set them at v^-ork Vv ithin our lines." By a re- 
markable coincidence, this first step towards emancipation 
was taken where slaves had first been brought to our shores. 
Congress Congress met on the 4th of July. Twenty- 
and the three states were represented in the Senate, twenty- 
dlat'b ^^""'^ ^° ^^*® House of Representatives. The presi- 
message. dent's message recommended " the legal means for 
making this contest a short and decisive one ... at least 



428 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

four hundred thousand men and four hundred million dollars."' 
It stated, " This is essentially a people's contest. On the 
side of the Union, it is a struggle for maintaining that form 
and substance of government whose leading object is to 
elevate the condition of men. . . . It is worthy of note 
that while large numbers of those in the army and navy 
favored with offices have resigned, not one common soldier 
or common sailor is known to have deserted his flag. . . . 
Our popular government has often been called an experi- 
ment. Two points in it our people have already settled — 
the successful establishing and the successful administer- 
ing of it. One still remains — its successful maintenance 
against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it. . . . 
And having thus chosen our course, without guile and 
with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go 
forward without fear and with manly hearts." Congress 
passed one bill authorizing a loan of two hundred and fifty 
million dollars, another calling out five hundred thousand 
volunteers, and a third providing that slaveholders forfeited 
all claim to slaves employed in aiding insurrection or resist- 
ing laws of the United States. The things to be done, said 
a member, are to tax, fight, and emancipate. 

More than a month passed before the troops 
Bull Run. , . TTT 1 • , T^ 

gathering at VVashington were sent over the Jroto- 

mac, (May 23.) There fortifications were thrown up, and 
preparations for further marches were made. Many of 
the loyal people became very impatient, and clamored for 
an advance against Richmond, now the capital of the Con- 
federate States. But between it and the national capital 
lay the principal confederate army,draAvn from Charleston 
and other quarters, and threatening Washington with the 
fate which confederate authorities had openly predicted. 
At length, the Union army being forty thousand strong at 
Washington, with eighteen thousand besides not far from 



CIVIL WAR. 429 

Harper's Ferry, General McDowell received orders to move 
at the head of about thirty thousand men, (July 15.) Gene- 
ral Beauregard had twenty-six thousand confederates under 
his command at Manassas Junction, thirty miles south- 
west of Washington, and General Johnston had eight 
thousand more at Winchester. It was McDowell's object 
to engage with Beauregard before Johnston could join 
him, and he therefore marched directly upon Manassas. 
An engagement was brought on by an attempt to turn the 
confederate right at Union Mills on Bull Run, a small 
stream emptying into the Potomac, but this proved unim- 
portant, (July 18.) Three days later, (July 21,) the battle 
of Bull Run was fought on either side of Young's Creek, 
which flows into the run. The Union army endeavored to 
turn the confederate left, and at first succeeded, about 
noon. " They're beating us back," said the confederate 
General Bee. "We'll give them the bayonet," replied 
Jackson, as he held a ridge towards which the Union 
troops were advancing. " Form, form," cried Bee to his 
disordered line ; " there's Jackson, standing like a stone 
wall." Beauregard hurried reenforcements to the same 
point, and thither, at half past three, came four thousand 
of Johnston's men from Winchester, pouring out of the 
railway train which brought them, to strike the Union right, 
and drive it back in terrible disorder. Rout followed, and 
then, as the masses crossed Bull Run on the retreat towards 
Centreville, a panic set in, and all was lost. A small force 
of United States regulars prevented the confederate cav- 
alry from pursuing, and the confederate infantry were too 
much disordered themselves to leave the field. Their 
loss was the greater ; three hundred and seventy-eight 
killed and fourteen hundred and eighty-nine wounded, to 
four hundred and eighty-one killed and one thousand and 
eleven wounded on the Union side. But the Union army 



430 PAPxT IV. 1797-1872. 

lost a largo number taken prisoners, and twenty-seven 
out ot" twouty-oiglit cannon wliic-h liail crossod Bull Run ; 
in Tact, lost everything. The confederates made little use 
of their victory, except to boast of it. "• Our troops," 
said General Johnston, ''believed the war ended, . . . and 
left the army in crowds to return to their homes." On 
the other hand, the Union troops rallied. Tlieir defeat 
was ascribed to causes over which they had no control, 
to the clamor which had obliged tliem to move though 
imprepared, to the heat, dust, and exhaustion of the midsum- 
mer day on which they fought, and, above all, to the mis- 
management which allowed Johnston to recuforec Beaure- 
gard. It was fortunate that such excuses could be made, 
or the spirit of the people might have sunk under the blow. 
As it was, they bore up against it, and learning the lesson 
taught, addressed themselves more seriously to the war 
which they saw before them. 
^ ,. The blockade of the southern coast proved far 

Carolinii ^ 

and c.eor- more efficient than could have been hoped or 
•^ " "^^ 'feared. Notwithstanding the immense extent over 
which it required to be maintained, not many vessels suc- 
ceeded in running it. Among these were a few commis- 
sioned as privateers, one of which, the steamer Sumter, 
did great havoc among United States merchantmen. To 
enforce the blockade, two expeditions, military and naval, 
were sent southward ; one in. August, reducing Forts 
Clark and Hatteras, at Hatteras Inlet ; the other in Sep- 
tember, reducing Forts Beauregard and Walker, at the 
entrance of Port Royal harbor, between Charleston and 
Savannah. Beaufort was occupied, and Tybee Island, 
commanding the mouthof the Savannah River, (December.) 
These victories were bravely won, but feebly used. 
The One of the successful blockade runners carried 

ireut, j^^.(j commissioners from the confederate govern- 



CIVIL WAR. 431 

ment, Mason of Virginia, and Slidel! of Louisiana, the 
former to Great Britain, the latter to Fraiiee. At Havana 
they took passage in the Britisli mail steamer Trent, and 
made about two hundred and fifty miles, when the ves- 
sel was stopped by the United States sloop of war San 
Jacinto, to which the commissioners, with their secretaries, 
were transferred, (November 8,) and Ijrought to the 
United States. Tiie commander of the San Jacinto, Cap- 
tain Wilkes, had acted on his own responsibility ; but he 
was congratulated by the secretary of the navy, thanked 
by the House of Representatives on the first day of the 
session, (December,) and honored by almost every possi- 
ble form of public and private gratitude. But the president 
saw what must follow. " We must stick," said he, on 
hearing of tlie capture, " to American principles concerning 
the ri<;hts of neutrals. . . . If Great Britain demands, 
we must give up the traitors." Great Britain demanded it 
immediately, in a despatch to Lord Lyons, minister at 
Washington, and without waiting a reply ordered troops 
and arms to Canada, ships and munitions to the North 
American and West India squadrons, while English jour- 
nals stormed, and Englishmen seemed to lose their reason. 
The prince consort insisted on moderation, and the party 
led by Cobden and Bright took a rational position, to 
which more and more of their countrymen were attracted 
as the first flash of passion passed. Meantime, Mr. Seward 
had written to Mr. Adams that as Captain Wilkes had not 
acted under instructions, his government was free to re- 
ceive any suggestion from the British government, (No- 
vember 30.) Not quite four weeks later, Mr. Seward 
communicated to Lord Lyons a letter addressed to Mr. 
Adams, in which he argued that if Captain Wilkes had 
brought the Trent itself into port, to be adjudged a prize 
or liberated by a court of admiraUy, he would have acted 



432 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

in accordance with British principles concerning neutrals ; 
but that not having done this, and not having any warrant 
in American principles to interfere w4th a neutral as he 
had, his prisoners must be released by the United States. 
*' We are asked," says the secretary of state, *' to do to 
the British nation just what we have always insisted all 
nations ought to do unto us." On new year's day, the 
confederate commissioners and their secretaries were de- 
livered to a British gunboat at Provincetown, Mass. The 
London Times, which had led the assault on Captain 
Wilkes and his government, now said that England would 
have done just as much for two negroes. Although the 
commissioners succeeded in reaching the capitals to which 
they had been accredited, they did not succeed in negotiat- 
inir with either government. 
,,.,. Immeuiately after Bull Run, General McClellan 

Military ■' ' 

prt'paru- was called from West Virginia to take command 
of the broken troops at Washington. These were 
reorganized as the army of the Potomac, and very large- 
ly increased through the summer and autumn ; but 
^ nothing followed, except a bloody repulse of a detachment 
at Ball's Bluff, (October 21.) General Scott resigned, 
and General McClellan succeeded as commander-in-chief, 
(November 1,) but was relieved in little more than four 
mouths. His successor, appointed the following summer, 
was General Halleck. But the only real commander-in- 
chief was Edwin M. Stanton, who took charge of the war 
department in January, 1862, and lield it in a grasp of iron 
till victory was won. He was charged by many of the 
Union generals with prejudice and wilfulness, but few 
doubted his capacity, none doubted his energy or his loy- 
alty. Under his direction the recruiting service never 
flagged ; as fast as the armies were reduced by disease or 
battle, they were filled by the unwearying devotion of the 
people. 



CIVIL WAR. 433 

^^j^ From the battle of Wilson's Creek, in which 

paigTisin LyoD fell, a succession of engagements under rap- 

the west. • ji • • -, , ' , , , 

idly increasing commanders kept the balance in 
Missouri generally inclined towards the Union side. The 
confederates marched into Kentucky, and fortified various 
points on the Mississippi River, in ihe early autumn, and 
their repulse became a leading object with the government 
and its forces in the west. The victory of Mill Spring, 
gained by General Thomas, one of our best and most ser- 
viceable generals, on the 19th of January, 1862, was the 
first in the series of actions by which Kentucky, and the 
greater part of Tennessee were recovered. Fort Henry, 
on the Tennessee River, was taken by the Union gunboats, 
(February6,) andFortDonelson, with twelve thousand men, 
by the army under General Grant, after very hard fighting 
for two days, (February 16.) Nashville was immediately oc- 
cupied, while the confederate posts on the Mississippi were, 
one after another, abandoned or surrendered, (Marcli, April.) 
The battle of Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh, near the south- 
ern border of Tennessee, was lost the first day, and won the 
second day, by General Grant, much aided by General 
Sherman of his own army, and reenforced by General 
Buell at the head of another army ; but though very de- 
structive, twenty thousand being killed or wounded on 
both sides, no results followed, (April 7, 8.) After long 
delays and numerous reenforcements, the army advanced 
under General Halleck as far as Corinth, Mississippi, which 
the confederates had first fortified and then evacuated, 
(May.) Meanwhile operations had been actively prose- 
cuted on the Mississippi, and after several important suc- 
cesses, under Commodore Foote and General Pope, tlie 
Union flotilla, under Captain Davis, routed the confederates 
near Memphis, and took possession of that city, (June 6.) 
This freed the Mississippi as far south as Vicksburg. 
37 



434 PART ly. 1797-1872. 

,, It -wns also free to the same poiut from tlic 

Kccovcry ^ 

of New mouth. A greater naval and military armament 
than had as yet been equipped, was directed to- 
wards New Orleans. It appeared almost impracticable 
to reach the city ; the army, under General Butler, could 
not march thither without support from the fleet, and the 
fleet, under Commodore Farragut, found the river strongly 
defended by two forts, St. Philip and Jackson, with a fleet 
in the stream, v/hile a chain, supported upon hulks, was 
stretched from one bank to the other. Tlie chain was 
broken, but the forts held out unshaken by a bombardment 
of several days. Farragut ran by them in the night, 
under a cannonade which hardly any commander be- 
fore him would have braved, escaped the fire-vessels sent 
against him, vanquished the confederate fleet, and on the 
day after moved his squadron abreast of New Orleans, 
(April 25.) The forts below surrendered, (April 28,) and 
the city was occupied by the Union army, (May 1.) Gen- 
eral Butler remained in New Orleans, while Farragut 
ascended the Mississippi, taking Baton Rouge and Natchez, 
and running the Vicksburg batteries to meet the Union 
fleet above them, then runninfjj them a2;aiu on his return to 
New Orleans. 

Fort Pu- Batteries being planted on Tybee Island by Cap- 
Ifiski. ^j^jjj Gillmore, they opened upon Fort Pulaski, and 
compelled its surrender on the second day, (April 11.) 

Hioher up the coast the forts on Roanoke Ishmd 

IJoanoke, ^ . . 

Newborn, fell before an expedition under General Burnside 
nnfiFort j^^^d Commodore Goldsborough, (February 7, 8.) 

Macon. . , o 

The confederate fleet in Albemarle Sound was soon 
mastered, (February 10.) The next month, (March 14,) 
Newbern was captured, and the next, (April 25,) Fort 
Macon, so that a great part of the North Carolina coast 
was recovered. 



CIVIL WAR. 435 

, . -, When Norfolk came into the hands of the Vir- 

'^ Mernmac 

and ginia secessionists, they found, among other very 

vahiable spoils, the steam frigate Merrimac, sunk 
by the officers of the navy-yard, but easily raised and con- 
verted into an iron-plated ram by her captors. Her ap- 
pearance in Hampton Roads, where Union ships of war and 
transports were always lying, had long been feared, when 
she came, with five smaller vessels in her train, in tlie 
afternoon of March 8. At half past three she struck 
the sloop of war Cumberland, which sank discharging 
her guns, and carrying down her sick, wounded, and 
killed. At half past four she compelled the surrender of 
the frigate Congress, already attacked by her consorts. 
vShe then turned against the steam frigate Minnesota, that 
had run aground, but without immediately attacking this 
vessel. The Roanoke and St. Lawrence were also ground- 
ed. Enough was done for one day, and the Merrimac 
withdrew towards Norfolk, to return when she pleased, 
and to do, as it seemed, what she pleased. Hampton 
Roads lay at her mercy, and beyond, the sea, the Potomac, 
Washington, Philadelphia, New York or Boston, any 
harbor, any fleet, any shore upon which she might de- 
scend. But one night changed everything by bringing the 
Monitor to the scene of action. This was a low iron-clad, 
constructed under John Ericsson's direction iu New York, 
and armed with heavy guns in a movable turret, which 
had been invented twenty years before by Theodore R. 
Timby. These are names and facts which deserve to be 
remembered, for the vessel thus fashioned proved the 
safety of the Union fleets and the Union shores. Lieutenant 
Wordeu commanded, and he laid his tub, as it appeared, 
full in the path of the huge Merrimac, as she came to com- 
plete her work of devastation on the morning of the 9th 
of March. The action was decisive, and the Monitor 
drove her antagonist back to Norfolk. On the abandon- 



436 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

ment of that place by the confederates, early in May, they 
blew up the Merrimac. The Monitor foundered at sea in 
September. Her brave commander, in the action with 
the Merrimac, received severe injuries, and as he lay help- 
less in Washington, the president wept over him with 
pathetic gratitude. 

We have now to follow the Union forces to de- 

Peniusu- 

lar cam- feat, aud that where it told the most against them 
^^^°^- and their cause. The army of the Potomac, under 
General McClellan, was transported to the peninsula be- 
tween the York and James Rivers, at the beginning of 
April. It was occupied a month by the siege of York- 
town, and then led forward in such a way as to expose 
a part of it to great peril at Williamsburg, (May 5.) 
Most of its fighting was done between May 27, at Hanover 
Court House, aud July 1, at Malvern Hill; and in the 
course of these five weeks, it passed from one extreme, 
where its advance was within four miles of Richmond, to 
the other, Avhere it fouglit only to save itself from total 
destructiou before reaching the James River in retreat. 
Fair Oaks, (May 31, June 1,) Mechanicsville, (June 26,) 
Gaines' Mill, (June 27,) White Oak Swamp, (June 30,) 
— these, with others just mentioned, are the names of its 
battles, all gallantly delivered, and all vainly, so far as 
related to the purpose of the campaign. Thousands upon 
thousands of brave men, as brave as any the country had, 
fell by disease or wounds ; and when all was over, Rich- 
mond looked safer than Washington. The general threw 
the blame upon the government for not reenforcing him, 
and the government blamed the general ; the army and 
the people were divided in opinion. But the campaign 
had been determined in very much the same manner, 
though on a much larger scale, as the battle of Bull Run. 
The confederate general known as Stonewall Jackson 
entered the Shenandoah Valley, where General Banks was 



CIVIL WAR. 437 

in command, drove liim with great loss out of the valley, 
(May 23-26,) then beat General Fremont at Cross Keys, 

(June 8,) and General Shields at Port Republic,(Ju[je 9,) 

both of'wliom had been sentto intercept him, — and havinr^ 
thus alarmed Washington and the north, he prevented 
troops from being forwarded to General McClellan, and 
brought his force to swell the array defending Richmond, 
now under the command of General Lee ; when Lee, thus 
strengthened, turned on the Union lines, and forced their 
withdrawal to the River James. 

Northern Lee and Jackson proved a more serious combi- 
Virgmia. y^tiou than had as yet confronted the Union gen- 
erals. The forces near Wasliiugton and in the Shenandoah 
Valley, augmented at first by troops from West Virginia 
and the Carolina coast, and afterwards by the Army of the 
Potomac from the James River, were organized as the 
army of Virginia, under General Pope, and directed 
towards Richmond from the north. It M^as a brief and 
pitiful movement, beginning with the defeat of General 
Banks at Cedar Mountain, (August 9,) and ending with 
the defeat of General Pope at Bull Run, (August 29,) and 
Chantilly, (August 31,) from which he sought safety within 
the fortifications of Washington. Again had Jackson's 
swift marches on the fiank and rear of our army resulted 
in its overthrow. To match such a general with one like 
Pope was like matching the Mississippi with a creek. 
Yet Pope's defeat was not wholly his own work ; he 
suffered from military jealousies among the officers who 
should have supported him for the sake of the country. 
Defen • "^^^ relics of the summer campaigns, and the new 
of Mary- regiments hurrying to the front, were gathered as 
the army of the Potomac, and intrusted to General 
McClellan. He was soon on the road in pursuit of Lee, 
who, flushed with repeated victories, crossed the Potomac, 
(September 3-6,) and called upon the people of Maryland 



438 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

to throw off tliclr " foreign yoke," by which he meant the 
government of the United States. Ready as individuals 
"were, the great body of Marylanders had no mind to join 
the confederates, and the army was disappointed in the 
accessions and supplies which had been confidently expect- 
ed. It order to take Harper's Ferry, Lee ran the great 
risk of dividing his forces ; but it was run safely, and 
Jackson, after taking tlie Ferry and twelve thousand men 
garrisoning it, (September 15,) rejoined his commander. 
McClellan won the battle of South Mountain on the 14th, 
and might have turned it into a great victory, had he fol- 
lowed it up before Jackson's return. But he did not, and 
accordingly had to figlit both Lee and Jackson at Antietam, 
on the 17th, where they suffered sufliciently to decide their 
retreat to Virginia. This, in the circumstances, was equiv- 
alent to a Union victory, and the relief to the loyal country 
•was immense, though there was great disappointment be- 
cause the confederate retreat was not molested. 
_^ - Just before this advance into Maryland, two 

Defence •' ' 

of Ciucia- confederate divisions entered Kentucky. One of 
them, under General E. K. Smith, defeated a body 
of Union troops at Richmond, (August 30), and marched 
towards Cincinnati., General Lewis Wallace took upon 
himself the almost hopeless defence of the city, and or- 
dered all places of business to be closed, ferry-boats to 
stop, and citizens to work on iutrenchments and enlist in 
an improvised army. " Any how," he proclaimed, " it 
must be done. Tlie willing shall be properly credited ; the 
unwilling promptly visited. The principle adopted is — 
citizens for the labor, soldiers for the battle," (September 1.) 
Forty thousand came forward, and in three days a line of 
earthworks ten miles long, armed and manned, on the 
southern bank of the Ohio, looked so Ibrmidable that when 
the confederates arrived, (September 12,) they made no 



CIVIL WAR. 439 

attack, but retreated. The other confederate division, 
under General Bragg, defeated a Union ibrce at Mem- 
fordsville, (September 17,) and being joined by Smitli, re- 
treating from Cincinnati, Bragg also retreated southward, 
engaging in a battle at Perryville with tlie Union army 
under General Buell, (October 8.) Of all these move- 
ments in Kentucky and Maryland, nothing stands out in 
such relief as the defence of Cincinnati. It was better 
than any battle as a proof of the resolution with which the 
loyal people were now armed. 

Their resolution was put to the test by repeated 

KovGrsGR 

reverses as the year drew to a close. General 
McClellan gave place to General Burnside as commander 
of the army of the Potomac, (November 7,) and he led his 
brave troops to fruitless slaughter in attempting to storm 
Lee's works at Fredericksburg, (December 13.) General 
Buell gave place to General Rosecrans as commander of 
the Army of the Cumberland, and he, marching against 
the confederates, was attacked by them at Stone River, 
near Murfreesboro', and but for General Thomas and the 
centre of his army, would have been routed, (December 
31.) General Grant, succeeding General Ilalleck in com- 
mand of the army at Corinth, held that post against the 
confederates, and on his marching westward. General 
Rosecrans defended it in a well-fought battle, (October 4.) 
But Grant's expedition against Vicksburg was a failure. 
As he advanced from the east, the officer in charge of his 
stores surrendered, and left him no alternative but to fall 
back, (December 20,) while his lieutenant. General Sher- 
man, advancing from the north, was repulsed in battle at 
Ci)ickasaw Bayou, (December 29.) 

Einanci- Light was breaking from another quarter than 
pation. ii^Q battle-field. The first rift in slavery was very 
narrow, merely emancipating slaves employed in aiding 



440 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

insurrection. But it was sure to widen. General Fremont, 
commanding the department of Missouri, issued a general 
order freeing the slaves of " all persons in the State of 
Missouri who shall take up arras against the United 
States," (August 30, 1861.) This, the president directed, 
must be " so construed us lo conform with, and not to tran- 
scend, the provisions on the same subject contained in the 
act of Congress," a few weeks earlier, by which only such 
slaves were freed as were ther 'selves employed in aiding 
insurrection. The next spring, (May 9,) another general 
order was issued by General Hunter, in command of the 
department of the south, or Georgia, Florida, and South 
Carolina : " The persons in these states, heretofore held 
as slaves, are declared forever free." This, too, was met 
by the president. " The supposed proclamation now in 
question," he asserted, " whether genuine or false, is alto- 
gether void. ... I further make known that whether it 
be competent for me, as commander-in-chief of the army 
and navy, to declare the slaves of any state or states free, 
and whether at any time or in any case it shall have be- 
come a necessity indispensable to the maintenance of the 
government to exercise such supposed power, are questions 
which, under my responsibility, I reserve to myself, and 
which I cannot feel justified in leaving to the decision of 
commanders in the field," (May 19.) The president goes 
on to state that he had recommended (March) Congress to 
adopt a joint resolution, and that it had been adopted 
(April) by large majorities in both branches, declaring it 
the duty of the United States to cooperate, by pecuniary 
aid, with any state undertaking the gradual abolishment 
of slavery. Here, as may be remarked, he took the early 
anti-slavery ground in favor of a gradual and compensated 
emancipation. This, he continued, " now stands an au- 
thentic, definite, and solemn proposal of the nation to the 



CIVIL WAR. 441 

states and people most interested in the subject matter. 
To the people of tliosc states, now, I mostly appeal. . . 
You cannot, if you would, be blind to the signs of the 
times." These signs were indeed plain. Congress had 
already abolished slavery in the District of Columbia on 
the principle of compensation to the slaveholder, (April IG.) 
It soon abolished slavery in the territories, without com- 
pensation, (June 19.) It soon after (July 17) passed an 
act to seize and confiscate- the slaves of persons engaged 
in rebellion, which was what Fremont had attempted the 
previous year. But a greater measure than any of these 
was now in contemplation by the president. Eaily in the 
summer he read to his cabinet the draft of a proclamation 
emancipating all slaves in the seceded states. The secre- 
tary of state objected not to the act, but to the time of 
doing it ; let it be done, he said, after victory. Time 
passed, bringing no victory, but deeper and deeper defeat, 
and at last the confederates were in Maryland. '' I made 
a solemn vow before God," said the president afterwards, 
"that if General Lee was driven back from Maryland, I 
would crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the 
slaves," To a deputation from Chicago, which waited on 
him at this time, (September 13,) to urge emancipation, 
as if it were their measure, not his, he meekly replied, 
" The subject is on my mind by day and by night more 
than any other. Whatever shall appear to be God's will, 
that I will do." Antietam was fought, Lee was driven 
back, and then, on the 22d of September, came forth the 
president's proclamation, " That on the first day of Janu- 
ary, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state, or 
designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then 
be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, 
thenceforward, and forever free ; and the executive gov- 



442 PART lY. 1797-1S72. 

ernmcnt of tbc United States, incliidlug the military and 
naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the 
freedom of such persons." 

Those few words lifted the load under which 

Effect of _ 

the proc- the nation had staggered from its birth. The 
slaves in the states which had rebelled would 
be free at the beginning of another year, and it could 
not be long after when the slaves in the slaveholdiug 
states which had not rebelled would also be free. Men 
could look into an early future, and see no slave in all the 
national domain. It did not please them all ; for the mo- 
ment, it did not please most of them. In the elections 
which soon followed throughout the loyal states, the re- 
publican majorities of the presidential vote were changed 
to a democratic majority against the administration ; and 
though various causes were assigned, such as the condition 
of trade and the currency, the growing taxes, the arrests 
on political charges, and the reverses of the campaign, 
there can be no doubt that the most efiective cause of all 
was the emancipation policy to which the administration 
stood committed. The British miuister. Lord Lyons, 
Avrote home of " a change iu public feeling among the 
most rapid and complete that have ever been witnessed even 
in this country." Moreover the army and navy, or many 
officers and men, grumbled that the war for the Union 
should be turned into a war for the slave. As the presi- 
dent afterwards said, the good results of emancipation were 
not so immediate as was expected. But he stood firm, and 
though it was often predicted that the first of January 
would come and go without a second proclamation from 
him to give effect to the first, it brought out the following : 
" I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves 
within said designated states and parts of states [[that is, 
under confederate rule] are, and henceforward shall be, 



CIVIL WAR. 445 

y free. . . . And I hereby enjoin upon tlic people so de^ 
elared to be free to abstain from all violence unless in ne- 
cessary self-defence. . . . And I further declare and 
make known that such persons, of suitable condition, will 
be received into the armed service of the United States. 
. . . And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act 
of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military 
necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind 
and the gracious favor of Almighty God." 



CHAPTER XIII. 
Civil War — continued. 

Second Periob. — January, 1863, to April, 1865. 

Long before this, the means of paying for the war 

Finances. . • -r» 

became a serious question. Prosperous as was the 

nation, particularly the loyal part of it, when the conflict be- 
gan, it could not continue so, while wealth was poured out on 
every side, and labor was largely turned to the battle-field. 
The banks sounded the first note of alarm by suspending spe- 
cie payments in 1861. Congress gave the next in February, 
1862, by authorizing the issue of United States treasury 
notes, without redemptiou, to the amount of $150,000,000 
at first, and afterwards of 8400,000,000 ; and these notes 
were declared to be legal tenders in payment of debts. 
The volume of irredeemable currency, thus expanding, pro- 
duced its inevitable effects. In order to obviate them in 
very small degree, the national bank system was estab- 
lished early in 1863. By this the banks, hitherto state 
institutions, became national, and their notes were secured 
by deposits of government bonds at AYashington. The 
circulation was thus materially improved, aud bank notes 
from all parts of the country passed current every v/here. 
But the value of the currency remained that of mere paper 
money, irredeemed aud irredeemable. It therefore soon 
declined. More paper dollars were needed to buy what 
was before bought by gold and silver, or by paper re- 
deemable in gold and silver. Prices therefore rose, and 

(444) 



CIVIL WAR — CONTINUED. 445 

persons of limited income found it more limited than ever, 
while some sank gradually into poverty. Oq the other 
hand, those who could profit by the times rose to sudden 
riches. Government contracts, and the speculations en- 
couraged by the unsettled state of the money market, were 
turned to the creation of new fortunes. Many made money 
by dealing in government bonds, of which millions fol- 
lowed millions, as loan followed loan. By March, 1864, 
the national debt had reached fifteen hundred millions, and 
this proved just about one half of the amount expended by 
the nation, not counting state or local expenditures, upon 
the war. The secretary of the treasury, Mr. Chase, 
thought his operations highly successful ; but the price of 
gold reached 195 (paper dollars for one hundred gold) in 
May, 1864, and 285 in July, declining afterwards. 

Of all the military and naval movements of the 

Vicksburg. 1 i i • 1 ... 

war, none had hitherto come nearer its object 
than that wdiich aimed at getting possession of the 
Mississippi River. One great obstacle remained, indeed 
more than one ; but if one could be overcome, no other 
would cause any serious difficulty. This one was Vicks- 
burg, once a quiet town, now a noisy stronghold, with long 
lines of batteries upon its cliffs, and earthworks in its rear, 
on the holding of which the confederates set a very high 
value, but not at all higher than its strategic importance 
merited. General Grant had ftiiled, as we have seen, 
in his attempt at the close of 1862 ; but the new year 
found him intent upon the same object, and after sending 
a successful expedition up Arkansas Hiver, (January, 1863,) 
he concentrated his efforts upon Vicksburg. All that he 
couid do on the north and west, or river, sides of the place 
seemed unavailing, and when he had met with more than 
enough disappointment to check a commander of average 
firmness, he resolved upon trying an approach upon the 
38 



446 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

south and east. This was so hazardous a plan that his 
most trusted subordinate, General Sherman, protested 
against it, Avhile Grant delayed reporting it to Washington 
until interference from that quarter would be too late. 
He proposed carrying his army down the river, landing 
on the eastern bank, marching towards the interior, and 
then back towards Vicksburg, without any line of com- 
munication with the point from which he started, or any 
other point which he could fix upon as a base of opera- 
tions. To do this merely with an army was impossible, but 
with the gunboats on the river, and aid from them through- 
out the movement, it might be executed. On two ditif'er- 
ent nights, several gunboats ran the confedei'ute batteries, 
eio'ht miles louof, and thouu^h sufFerin": from the tire, were 
soon repaired and ready tor service below the fortifications. 
At the same time, cavalry to the number of seventeen hun- 
dred, under Colonel Grierson, were sent to break up the 
railroads and telegraphs connecting with Vicksburg, and 
those brave riders made their way through six hundred 
miles of a hostile country, arriving at Baton Rouge in six- 
teen days from La Grange, Tennessee. " The Confeder- 
acy is a mere shell," reported Grierson. General Sher- 
man was next directed to make a feint of attacking Vicks- 
burg on the north, and then to join Grant on the 'south. 
All these precautions having been taken. Grant led his 
army down the western bank of the Mississippi, crossed at 
Bruinsburg, (April 30,) defeated the confederates in five 
battles, (May 2-17,) on the march, first to Jackson, the 
capital of Mississippi, then to Vicksburg, and more than 
all prevented General Johnston, commanding the arn)y 
outside, from effecting a junction with General Pemberton, 
commanding inside the fortress. On gaining the position 
which had been intended, Sherman had the magnanimity 
to confess his mistake in having opposed the plan of his 



CIVIL WAR — CONTINUED. 447 

Piiperlor, wliile Grant was equally maguanimous in saying 
nothing of Sherman's objections, or amends. Two assaults 
were made, both unsuccessfully, and then reenforcements 
were asked for and obtained. Siege was laid, and in six 
weeks Vicksburg fell, with all its garrison and munitions. 
The surrender took place upon the 4th of July. 
Port The surrender of Port Hudson followed, (July 8.) 

Hudson. Xhis was a stronghold lower down the river, which 
an army under General Banks, now of the Louisiana de- 
partment, had been assailing for some time. It could not 
iioid out when Vicksburg yielded. The Mississippi, from 
source to mouth, was recovered by the Union, and the 
Confederacy was cut in two. In the early autumn, an ex- 
pedition from Vicksburg took Little Rock, the capital of 
Arkansas, (September 10.) 

Chancel- The army of the Potomac, discouraged by re- 
lorsvilie. verses, changes of generals, and political controver- 
sies, was placed under the command of General Hooker, 
(January 26.) He undertook to reorganize it, and three 
months later to lead it to victory. He had hardly crossed 
the Rappahannock, and taken the offensive against Lee, than 
he suddenly changed to the defensive, waiting for the enemy, 
as he said, to give him battle on his own ground, at Chancel- 
lorsville. But his right was suddenly attacked on the flank 
by Stonewall Jackson, (May 2,) and with such effect as to 
determine the defeat of the whole army, though the battle 
was kept up for two days more, (May 3, 4.) On the next 
day. Hooker returned to the north side of the Rappahanuock, 
leaving behind him thousands of killed, wounded, and pris- 
oners. The confederates also suffered very heavily, and 
in Jackson, who was fired on in the dark from his own 
lines, they lost a general to wliom they owed this and 
many a preceding victory. " He was as good," they said, 
" as ten thousand men." The army of the Potomac Avas 



448 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

soon yet more reduced by the discharge of troops whose 
period of enlistment expired. On the other hand, Lee's 
army of Northern Virginia was ready, as one of its best 
officers, General Longstreet, said, to undertake anything. 
Gettys- Its temper was put to trial. Notwithstanding the 
burg. jQi fresh experience of the previous autumn, the 
confederate authorities resolved upon another expedition 
into the loyal states, and within a month from Chancellors- 
ville, Lee began to move northward, (June.) As soon as 
this was known, Hooker followed, keeping between the 
enemy and Washington, and crossed the Potomac the day 
alter Lee. Great was the alarm, not only at the capital, 
or in the parts of Maryland and Pennsylvania imme- 
diately threatened, but at Philadelphia, and even New 
York, both within striking distance, if Lee were again 
victorious. The disaffection of certain classes in the 
laroer cities, and their threatened resistance to the 
draft which the government was about to make, added 
to the fears of a confederate attack ; and many a flight, 
many a case of valuable effects, was directed to some far- 
off place of secuiity. Means of defence did not abound. 
As soon as the president became aware of Lee's purpose, 
he called for one hundred thousand militia from New 
York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Ohio ; 
but scarcely half that number responded, and most of those 
who did were ill prepared to meet the army of Northern 
Virginia. It did not encourage public confidence to learn 
that just at this crisis, when the confederates were enter- 
ing Pennsylvania, the army of the Potomac was changing 
commanders ; but General Hooker resigned, and General 
Meade, a tried and efficient officer, was appointed. He 
pressed forward without delay, and Lee, finding his com- 
munications threatened, turned from the road towards 
Harrisburg, and moved south-eastward to Gettysburg. 
Here was the wntcrshed between the Susquehanna Valley 



CIVIL WAR — CONTINUED. 449 

on the north, and the Potomac on the south, and here a 
battle between northern and southern armies mio-lit seem 
intended to be decisive. General Reynolds, commandin"- 
the Union advance, was ordered to march on Gettysburo- 
from the south, at the same moment that the foe approached 
from the west ; and there he engaged in the forenoon of 
July 1, and while winning the first advantage, fell mortally 
wounded. At this time the main body of Meade's army 
was very far off, but being hurried forward, and well posted 
on a double ridge south of the town, it was ready for 
the fiercer conflict of the second day. It proved very 
difficult to resist the attack which the rashness of General 
Sickles invited on the Union left, and which, for some 
hours, threatened the whole army with defeat, Avhile the 
Union right was also turned, and danger in that quarter 
became imminent. But Meade and his brave men stood 
fast, and when, on the third day, the confederates charged 
the left centre under General Hancock, and threw all 
their passionate vigor into one convulsive efibrt, they were 
met, broken, and compelled to give up the hard-fought field. 
Seventeen thousand Union soldiers, and more than twenty 
thousand confederates, were killed or woimded in this great 
battle. It was won on the same afternoon of July 3 when 
Peniberton was arranging the terms of his surrender to 
Grant at Vicksburg. On the evening of the day of 
that surrender, Lee began his retreat, and ten days later, 
amid great disorder and suffering, his army, reduced by 
almost one half, recrossed the Potomac. It was a great 
disappointment to loyal men that he should have been al- 
lowed to get back into Virginia ; but the army of the Poto- 
mac was in no condition to pursue with any zeal or effect. 
The president called upon the people to observe a day for 
national thanksgiving, praise, and prayer, invoking Al- 
mighty God " to lead the whole nation, through paths of 
38* 



450 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

repentance and submission to the Divine will, back to the 
perfect enjoyment of uuiou and fraternal peace." The 
day was kept on the 6tli of August. Three months later, 
(November 19,) a part of the Gettysburg battle-field was 
dedicated as the burial-place of those who had there fallen 
in defence of the Union. The president was there, and 
when the ceremonies were performed, and the funeral oration 
was delivered by Edward Everett, he stood up and uttered 
a few words, consecrating the living to the great task which 
the dead had left, and saying, " Here let us resolve that 
they shall not have died in vain ; that this nation shall, 
under God, have a new birth of freedom ; and that govern- 
ment of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall 
not perish from the earth." 

As in 1862, so in 1863, when Lee advanced in 

Attempt , ' 

on indi- the east, a simultaneous attempt was made to pen- 
ana and etrate the loyal states of the west. Thirty-five 
Ohio. ,11 1 /-^ 1 T»T 

hundred cavalry, under General Morgan, who ex- 
pected to be joined by a force then in East Tennessee, 
passed through Kentucky at the beginning of July, crossed 
into Indiana, and on being resisted there, turned into 
Ohio, but were pursued, and finally (July 26)r captured, 
with the exception of a few hundred. It was more than 
twice as large a party as that under Grierson, which had 
made its way across two of the Southern States in April 
and May ; but while Grierson swept all before him, Morgan 
himself was swept before his pursuers. The governors of 
Indiana and Ohio both called for volunteers, Cincinnati 
was placed under martial law, as in the year before, and all 
the country round rose to repel the foe. 

Conscription had been the chief means of filliufi: 
Draft. , , . . . „ 

the confederate armies from the beginning of the 

second year of war. It was a year later (May 8) when 

the president of the United States announced a draft to be 



CIVIL WAR — CONTINUED. 451 

made in July, accordicg to an act of Congress in March. 
To this measure there was great opposition, open and se- 
cret. An associatiou, called Knights of the Golden Circle, 
was believed to intend revolution in the Middle and West- 
ern States. Riots broke out in New York, and for three 
days and nights ('July 13-15) all was anarchy. Governor 
Seymour stood on the steps of the City Hall, calling the 
rioters his friends, and telling them he had sent his adju- 
tant general to Washington " to have the draft stopped." 
The riot, of course, continued, until the police and rapidly 
gathering militia put it down, after more than four hun- 
dred, chiefly colored persons, had been killed or wounded. 
Disturbances broke out elsewhere, and an epidemic of dis- 
order seemed impending. But the array of the Potomac, 
in saving the nation from the evil of defeat, saved it from 
the greater evil of sedition. The president had received 
formal authority from Congress to suspend the privilege of 
habeas corpus, (March 3,) and he now (August 19) sus- 
pended it. 

Fort The occupation of many points along the southern 

Sumter, ^oast proved highly serviceable to the blockade. It 
also led to various attempts upon other points not yet oc- 
cupied, sometimes successfid, but generally the reverse. 
Fort Sumter, where the war began, was like a thorn in 
the side of more than one commander. It was first assailed 
by sea alone, when (April 7, 1863) Admiral Dupont 
brought up his fleet of seven monitors and two irou-clads ; 
but heavy as was their fire, it proved unavailing agaiust 
that of Sumter and its encircling fortresses and batteries, 
so that in forty minutes the fleet withdrew, considerably 
injured. lu the summer. Admiral Dahlgren took com- 
mand, while General Gillmore was appointed to the mili- 
tary department in which Sumter lay. He thought^ it 
could be reached by operations on shore, the fleet assist- 
in<^ and began with a few thousand men, all he had for 



452 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

the purpose, on Folly Island. Hence a party was sent, 
under General Strong, to Morris Island, at the north- 
ern end of which stood Fort Wagner, and this was as- 
saulted, but unsuccessfully, (July 11.) Works were tliea 
thrown up on the island, and under their cover a second 
assault was tried, but with even more disastrous resuU. 
Strong fell mortally wounded, and other brave officers were 
killed, among them Colonel Shaw of the Massachusetts 
54th, a colored regiment, (July 19.) More works were 
constructed, aud after a locg bombardment, a third as- 
sault was about beginning, when Fort Wagner was found 
to be evacuated, (September 7.) Fort Sumter, bombarded 
at the same time, was much injured, but not evacuated, and 
a boat attack by night (September 8) was repelled with 
great loss. The only result of these destructive operations 
was to close the harbor of Charleston to blockade-runners. 
Colored The Massachusetts regiment, which fought as 
troops. ][)i'j),vely as the bravest at Fort Wagner, was the 
first recruited among the colored people of the north. 
Those of the south began to eulist the year before, in 
South Carolina aud Louisiana, and Congress authorized 
the president to receive them into the service, (July, 
1862.) But they did not generally enter it until after the 
emancipation of January, 1863. Willing as they were, 
they were hindered both by their own habitual submission 
and by the inveterate prejudices of their white fellow- 
countrymen. When the Massachusetts 54th was sent from 
Boston, it was by sea, in order to avoid any possible in- 
dignities in the streets of New York or other cities. Many 
of their white comrades shrank from them, many more 
treated them as inferiors, who might share in the hardships, 
but not in the honors, of the war. Strong as these feelings 
were, they yielded — they could not but yield — before the 
great qualities which the colored troops displayed. As 
the president wrote, in August, 1863, " There will be 



CIVIL WAR — CONTINUED. 453* 

blcack men who will remember that with silent toDgue, and 
clinched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, 
they have helped on." Of course, the wrath of the con- 
federates overflowed, at times in threats, at times in cruel- 
ties, as when a garrison at Fort Pillow, near Memphis, 
was put to the sword, the blacks for being black, and the 
whites for being their comrades, (April, 1864.) 
Great Relations with Great Britain, disturbed by her 

Britain proclamation of neutrality, and yet more by her 

and con- ^ . . ^ . 

federate behavior in the Trent affair, were again stormy. 

cruisers. J^on Steamers, built at Liverpool and Glasgow, 
were easily turned into confederate cruisers, and employed 
ao:ainst United States merchantmen. One called the Oreto, 
afterwards the Florida, was armed at Mobile ; but most 
of them never entered a confederate port, but were equipped 
like the "290," afterwards the Alabama, which sailed to 
the Azores, and there received its armament from one British 
vessel, and its crew from another. These rovers generally 
hoisted the British flag as they approached a vessel, and 
then, running up the confederate, used British guns and 
British gunners to capture or to destroy their victims. All 
this had been going on for a year, and exciting the utmost 
indignation amons; American merchants and the whole 
American people, when it became known that two iron- 
clad rams, the most powerful ships of war that could be 
built, were in construction at the same ship-yard which had 
sent out the Alabama ; and there could be no doubt of 
their destination. The United States minister, Mr. Adams, 
had done his best to prevent the sailing of the cruisers ; 
he now attempted to prevent the sailing of the rams. 
On being told by the British foreign secretary that " the 
government cannot interfere," Mr. Adams wrote, (Septem- 
ber 5, 1863,) "It would be superfluous for me to point 
out that tliis is war." By taking this position, he carried 
the day, and the rams were detained. 



454 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

Chatta- The defeat of the army of the Cumberland, under 
nooga. General Rosecraus, at Stone River, at the close of 
1862, was redeemed at the opening of 1863, at Murfrees- 
boro'. But though the confederate general Bragg retreat- 
ed from this battle-field, he did not retreat far, nor did 
Rosecrans follow ior six mouths afterwards. He then 
started, his principal object beiug to hold Chattanooga on 
the southern border of East Tennessee, while General 
Burnside, with the army of the Ohio, was to cross the 
northern border, and recover that loyal region. Without 
a battle, Rosecrans so moved as to compel the evacuation 
of East Tennessee b}^ the confederates, whom Bragg soon 
found he needed in his own army ; and further, to force 
Bragg and all his troops out of Chattanooga, (September 8.) 
Burnside entered Knoxville, (September 3,) amid a re- 
joicing population, men, women, and children joining in the 
welcome, and in offers of hospitality to the army. Nothing 
like it had been seen in the course of the war, for nowhere 
else had a people held so long, unaided, to the Union. 
Rosecrans, not content with Vvhat had been gained, pressed 
on, and without sufficient knowledge of the enemy's move- 
ments. Bragg was reenfbrced by Longstreet and a large 
body of troops from the army of Northern Virginia. With 
these he turned upon Rosecrans, marching by the Chicka- 
mauga, with the iuteution of throwing himself between the 
Union army and Chattanooga, which lay at no great dis- 
tance. Thomas, in command of the Union left, opened 
the battle on the 19th, and closed it on the 20th, the centre 
and the right having broken and fled, Rosecrans with them. 
Retreat to Chattanooga was inevitable, and with the army 
there, and the enemy on Missionary Ridge and Lookout 
jMountaio, — heights which commanded its communica- 
tions, if not the town itself, — the campaign seemed utterly 
lost. So, indeed, it was ; but anotber campaign succeeded 



CIVIL WAR — CONTINUED. 455 

under other direction, and the loss was repaired. A new 
department, the Mississippi, was created, and General Grant 
was appointed to its command. Under him, his army of 
the Tennessee, Slierman commanding, the army of the 
Cumberland, Thomas commanding, the army of the Ohio, 
JBurnside commanding, and twenty odd thousand men 
brought from the army of the Potomac, twelve hundred 
miles in seven days, with Hooker at their head, all con- 
stituted an effective force, and Grant \vas an effective 
leader. Here the interest of the war was for a time con- 
centrated : nor were circumstances wanting to give it pecu- 
liar intensity — on the one hand, the situation of the Union 
forces, virtually besieged in Chattanooga, and actually be- 
sieged at Knoxville, where Longstreet brought superior num- 
bers against Burnside ; on the other hand, the* successive 
stages in their relief. Grant's arrival, (October 23,) then 
Sherman's, (November 15,) then the great victory of Chat- 
tanooga, part of it above the clouds on Lookout Mountain, 
and the whole planned and executed with extraordinary 
ability, (November 23-25), in consequence of which Bragg 
retreated from his position, and Longstreet from his at Knox- 
ville. The combinations of the general and the achieve- 
ments of the army had won a triumph as romantic as it 
was complete. 

The victorious commander was soon appointed 
j^ieTten- to a Still higher charge. Congress revived the 
ant Gen- grj^^le of lieutenant general, which had been held 
only by Washington, and the president immediate- 
ly nominated Ulysses S. Grant. Ten days later, an execu- 
tive order was issued appointing Lieutenant General Grant 
to the command of the armies of the United States, (March 
10, 1864.) The new chief soon made it known that he 
had two purposes above all others of a military nature — 
the first, that the armies of the east and the west must 



456 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

act together, and the second, that they must act directly 
asainst the confederate armies. 

Ked Neither purpose was served by an expedition 

Eiver. previously planned. Louisiana, or that part in 
Union possession, had been the starting-point of several 
military adventures, and one more was now directed against 
Shreveport, on Red River. It was joined by troops from 
the army of the Tennessee, and gunboats and iron-clads from 
the Mississippi. General Banks was in command, with G en- 
eral Franklin as his lieutenant and adviser. The whole thing 
failed. The army was routed at Sabine Cross Roads, (April 
8,) and compelled to retreat precipitately ; while the fleet, 
caught in low water above the falls at Alexandria, would 
have been lost there but for the engineering ability of 
Lieutenant Colonel Bailey, who, by a series of dams across 
the rocks, raised the water so that the vessels could pass 
down, (May 9-13.) The expedition ended with the re- 
moval of General Banks, General Cauby succeeding. 

Before entering upon Grant's campaign we catch 
and Mex- sight of a uew danger. In the first year of the 
war, France, Great Britain, and Spain united in a 
c'onvention, of which the ostensible object was to compel 
Mexico to resume the payment of her foreign debt. From 
this Great Britain and Spain withdrew in the following 
year ; but France, or rather the Emperor Napoleon, pressed 
on with the intention of conquering Mexico, and creating 
an empire which should be more or less tributary to his 
own. The French arms soon prevailed, and the Aus- 
trian Archduke Maximilian became Emperor of Mexico. 
There could be but one opinion about this among the 
loyal citizens of the United States. The French emperor 
was their enemy, as well as the Mexicans' ; he was 
known to favor the dissolution of the Union, and but 
for the prospect of that event, and the struggle against 



CIVIL WAR — CONTINUED. 457 

it iu which the Americans were involved, he would never 
have exposed his troops or his government in a Mexican 
expedition. Resolutions were twice offered iu the Uuited 
States Senate declaring the expedition an act unfriendly to 
the Uuited States ; but the Seuate w^ould not debate them. 
The House of Representatives passed a resolution, (April 
4, 1864,) " that it does not accord with the policy of the 
United States to acknowledge a monarchical government 
erected on the ruins of any republican government in 
America, under the auspices of any European power." 
The French minister at Washington immediately demand- 
ed an explanation of the secretary of state, while the 
American envoy at Paris was asked by the French foreign 
minister if he brought peace or war. Although the French 
government professed to be satisfied with the representa- 
tions it received, the danger of rupture between it aud the 
United States continued as long as occupation of Mexico 
by the French continued. 

Lieutenant General Grant made his headquarters 

Virginia. 

with the army of the Potomac, which remamed un- 
der the immediate orders of General Meade. With this 
army, in three corps, commanded by Generals Hancock, 
Warren, and Sedgwick, a fourth corps commanded by 
General Burnside, and the cavalry under General Sheridan, 
Grant began his campaign against Lee on the 4th of May. 
The same day, the army of the James, under General 
Butler, moved from Fortress Monroe towards Richmond, 
but was soon checked and thrown out of the combined 
movement. For two months Grant was in the thick of bat- 
tle. The Wilderness, (May 5-12,) Spottsylvania, (12-21,) 
the North Anna, (21-31,) Cold Harbor, (June 1-10,) and 
Pelersburg, (10-30,) were the centres from which circles 
of slaughter successively radiated. The army of Northern 
Virginia, reenforced from the south, never fought more 
39 



458 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

stubbornly, or, considering the difFereuce in its antagonist, 
more successfully. It was in its own country, strong in 
its defences, and moving in shorter distances than the 
Union army. Every attempt to pierce it, or to flank it, 
failed, and Grant, though proposing, on the sixth day, " to 
fight it out on this line if it takes all summer," changed 
his line on the fourteenth day, and on the thirty-second 
utterly abandoned it for a line on the south side of the 
James, wliich lie held all summer, autumn, and winter, 
with headquarters at City Point. Here his first object 
was the capture of Petersburg ; his second, to break in be- 
tween Petersburg and Richmond ; his third, to extend his 
intrenchments on the left, that is, to the south-west, in order 
to seize the railroad communications of the enemy. The 
third alone was partially gained by seizing the Weldou 
railroad, (August 18.) It was now nearly three months 
and a half since the campaign began, and this was the first 
po.-itive success. Blood had flowed like water ; ten thousand 
men had been killed, — General "VVadsworth and General 
Sedgv/ick among the earliest to fall, — and fifty thousand 
more were wounded, many of them past recovery, on the 
Union side alone. Tlie enemy, far from being absorbed in 
resisting Grant, v/c'.s able to send a force of twenty thou- 
sand, under General Early, into Maryland and Pennsylva- 
nia, (July.) Baltimore and Washington were threatened, 
Chambersburg was burned, the country all around was 
ravaged, and Early retired to the Shenandoah Valley. 
There he was followed by General Sheridan, and thrice 
defeated, at Opcqium, (September 19,) Fisher's Hill, (Sep- 
tember 21.) and Cedar Creek, (October 19,) the last action 
beginning with the defeat of the Union troops, in Sheri- 
dan's absence, and ending with their victory when he 
placed himself at their head. Such, in its main features, 
was the Virginia campaign of 18G4 ; and the closing year 



CIVIL WAR — CONTINUED. 459 

foimd Grant still before Petersburg, and still endeavorino- 
to extend his lines to the south-west, while Lee held Pe- 
tersburg, and Richmond behind it, apparently secure. 

Yet Lee had been weakened not only bv the im- 
Georgia. j ./ "• 

mediate pressure of Grant, but by other movements 
at a distance. The next day but one after the army of the 
Potomac began to move, General Sherman led the three 
armies of the Tennessee, the Cumberland, and the Ohio, — 
the first under McPherson, the second under Thomas, and 
the third under Schofield, — against the confederate army 
under Johnston, (May 6.) The army was Sherman's im- 
mediate object ; his final object being Atlanta, in Georgia, 
a centre of supplies to the confederates, and about one 
hundred and fifty miles, by lines of march, from Chatta- 
nooga. By constantly flanking the enemy, and frequently 
fighting him, Sherman crossed the Alleghany range and the 
Chattahoochee River — a success so great, in the opinion 
of the confederate authorities, that Johnston was removed, 
and Hood put in his place, (July 17.) He was a bold, if 
not a skilful commander, and attacked Sherman in three 
successive engagements near Atlanta, (July 20, 22, 28,) 
McPherson falling in the second, but the Union troops vic- 
torious in all three. Then followed a month's siege of 
Atlanta by Sherman, then his movement towards the south, 
culminating in the victory of Joncsboro', (August 31,) 
and the evacuation of Atlanta by the confederate army, 
(September 2.) " Atlanta is ours, and fairly won," Sher- 
man telegraphed to Vv^ashington. He ordered the inhab- 
itants to leave the city, destroyed the manufactories and 
machine shops which had been supplying the confederate 
forces, and held it simply as a military position. Finding 
that the enemy intended to break his communications, and 
move towards Tennessee, Sherman sent back his best gene- 
ral, Thomas, to defend that state, and afterwards despatched 



460 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

a large part of his army for the same purpose. Meantime, 
he followed Hood northward and westward, until satisfied 
with regard to the preparations for meeting him, when he 
turned back to Atlanta, destroying the railroads, cutting 
the telegraph wire, and finally firing Atlanta, as he started 
on a" march to the sea, (November 14.) This was his own 
plan, and one to which General Grant had been slow to 
consent. Sherman led three divisions, General Howard 
commanding the right, or the army of the Tennessee ; Gen- 
eral Slocum the left, or army of Georgia ; and General 
Kilpatrick the cavalry ; in all, sixty-five thousand men, 
raovino' in four columns. The distance was between two 
hundred and fifty and three hundred miles, and it was 
traversed in four Aveeks, without any severe fighting or 
serious loss. Savannah was invested December 12 ; 
Fort McAllister was taken by assault, under General 
Hazen,on the next day ; and communications were opened 
with the fleet by General Sherman in person. On the 22d, 
Savannah surrendered, and on the 26th, the triumphant 
general telegraphed to the president, " I beg to j^resent you, 
as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah." His objects 
had been completely obtained, the Georgia railways being 
broken up, the manufactories, crops, and cattle of the peo- 
ple being swept away, " as well as," he said, " a countless 
number of slaves." Nor was this all. Thomas had done 
his part. As Hood marched northward, he was checked, 
in a severe battle, at Franklin, by Schofield, or rather by 
one of Schofield's brigadiers, Opdycke, (November 30 ;) 
and Schofield joining Thomas, the enemy pressed on to 
Nasliville. Grant became impatient, and started from the 
James River, but on reaching Washington received such 
information from Thomas as quieted his apprehensions. 
That general took the offensive, and falling on Hood's left 
wing, defeated his whole army at Nashville, in a battle 



CIVIL WAR — CONTINUED. 4G1 

M'hich lasted two days, (December 15, 16,) and was fol- 
lowed by a pursuit ^ the broken confederates for two hun- 
dred miles. Their Georgia army was no more. 
'Kearsar-e ^^^^^ ^'^^ military Operations of this year we turn 
and Ala- to the naval. Foremost stands the victory of the 
Kcarsargc over the Alabama. This steamer which 
sailed from Liverpool in the summer of 1862 had been 
for nearly two years capturing and destroying American 
vessels on the Atlantic, in the Gulf of Mexico, and in the 
Indian seas. Wiiile she was lying in the French port of 
Cherbourg, the United States steamer Kearsarge, Captain 
Winslow, arrived in pursuit, and Semmes, in command of 
the Alabama, accepted the opportunity of battle, (June 19, 
1864.) confident that his vessel of British build, and his 
guns manned by gunners from a British ship of war, would 
win. It was, in fact, an engagement between British and 
American steamers, and the sympathies not only of Great 
Britain, but of France, were on the side of the Alabama. 
But in vain. An hour's conflict, off Cherbourg, and the 
Alabama ran up the white flag, then sank beneath the 
waters of the Channel, her commander escaping in a Brit- 
ish yacht, to be honored with a public dinner and the gift 
of a sword by his admirers in England. The tribute to 
Winslow and his men was the gratitude of every heart 
among their loyal countrymen. 

Mobile On the 5th of August, in the early morning, Ad- 
I5ay. niiral Farragut brought his fleet against three forts 
and a confederate squadron defending the entrance to 
Mobile Bay. The ram Tennessee was one of the squadron, 
and a more powerful vessel than any of tlie assailants, 
while the channel was obstructed with piles and torpedoes. 
It mattered not to Farragut. Lashed to the maintop of 
his flagship, the Hartford, and giving his orders through 
a speaking tube to the deck, the admiral led the way to 
30* 



462 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

victory, destroying or scattering the confederate fleet in 
less than four hours, causing the abandonment of one of 
the three forts immediately, and the surrender of the other 
two upon the appearance of a land force. The closing of 
Mobile left but one port, Wilmington, where the blockade 
could be run. 

„ ... In the midst of war a new state, Nevada, was 

tioaof admitted to the Union, (October 31.) The presi- 
dential election followed, (November 8.) This was 
justly regarded as deciding whether the Avar should be con- 
tinued or stopped. The democratic party, or the majority 
of them, wanted it stopped, and declared it a failure. They 
put forward, however, a candidate, General McClellan, 
who might think it a failure, but could not wish it stopped 
until it succeeded. Mr. Lincoln was the republican candi- 
date, nominated not without open and secret opposition, 
and receiving a half-hearted support from many of the most 
earnest men in the party. But he stood for the Union, and 
the Union chose him its president for another term, by two 
hundred and twelve out of two hundred and thirty-three 
electoral votes, and a popular majority of more than four 
hundred thousand. All things considered, the long suffer- 
ings and the life-long losses of the war, and the uncertainty 
in which its issues were still involved, the will of the peo- 
ple to continue it is as really sublime as any thing in our 
history. 
^, . ^ ^, It soon appeared hoAv much more than the elec- 

Thirteenth ^'■ 

amend- tion itself had been at stake. Congress repealed 

™*^"*' the fugitive slave law before the election, (June, 
18G4 ;) but only the Senate would consent to the proposi- 
tion of an amendment to the Constitution prohibiting 
slavery within the United States. After the election, the 
House adopted it by more than a two thirds' vote, amid 
rejoicings which have few parallels in congressional annals, 



CIVIL WAR— CONTINUED. 463 

(January 31, 1865.) This amendment, known as the 
Tliirteenth, was ratified in the course of the year by three 
fourths of the state legislatures, and became a part of the 
Constitution. 

Singular as it may seem, the confederate Con- 
Slaves en- . •" 

listed by gress itself was moving towards emancipation. We 
the con- l^yQ passed over tiie straits to which the ijovern- 

federates. t-»- i i 

ment at Kicnmond was gradually reduced — its want 
of means, its want of men. As the campaign of 1864 be- 
came more and more disastrous, the measures to which it 
brought the confederates became more and more remark- 
able. At length, Jefferson Davis proposed, and General 
Lee recommended, the employment of slaves as soldiers, 
and that those so employed should be freed, either on enter- 
ing or quitting service. A bill was brought before Con- 
gress, adopted by the House, rejected by the Senate, but 
on the Virginia senators voting for it, in obedience to the 
legislature of that state, the bill was carried, (February, 
1865.) " It is an abandonment," said one of the senators 
from Virginia, *' of the ground on which we seceded from 
the old Union. ... If we are right in passing this 
measure, we were wrong in denying to the old government 
the right to interfere with the institution of slavery and to 
emancipate slaves." There could be no clearer proof that 
the confederates were vanquished. 

Fort But battles remained to be fought. One had 

Fisher, already occurred at the mouth of the Cape Fear 
River, where Fort Fisher and other strong fortifications 
protected the approach to "Wilmington. This it became 
important to reduce, not merely to complete the blockade 
at the only point where it was incomplete, but to prepare 
for General Sherman's advance from Georgia through 
the Carolinas. The first attempt failed. The fleet under 
Admiral Porter bombarded the fort vigorously ; but General 



464 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

Butler, taking command of the troops, though it was in- 
tended that they should be led by one of his subordinate 
generals, allowed only one part of them to be disembarked, 
and returned with the whole to James River, (December 
24-25, 1864.) General Grant then ordered General Terry 
to take them back, and he landed them above the fort, in- 
trenched their position, and then led them to a severe and 
successful assault, the fleet aiding by a continuous bom- 
bardment, (January 13-15, 1865.) Fort Fisher was sur- 
rendered, and all the other works at the mouth of the Cape 
Fear were abandoned. 

Sherman was all the while preparino^ to march 

Sherman i r o 

iuthe northward. His instructions were to embark liis 
Caro '"'''s-yj.,^-,y at Savannah for the James River, in order to 
combine with the forces there ; but he was anxious to march 
by land, which would bring up the troops in better condi- 
tion, and at the same time inflict a mortal blow upon the 
Carolinas, particularly the one which began the war. "At 
one stride," he promised, he would " make Goldsboro', 
and open communications with the sea by Newbern." 
Grant consented, and by the 1st of February, Slierman's 
army was in motion towards Columbia. It was a far 
more difficult march than that to Savannah. The weather 
was wet and cold, the roads were under water, the rivers 
were swollen ; " we must all turn amphibious," said Sher- 
man. But he reached his first point, the capital of South 
Carolina, and it was surrendered, (February 17.) On the 
same night Charleston was evacuated, the confederates no 
longer regarding it as tenable, and on the next morning 
the Union troops in ihat neigborhood entered the city and 
took possession of Fort Sumter, (February 18.) Both 
cities were fired by the confederates, and both would have 
been utterly destroyed but for the exertions of the Union 
soldiers. Sherman kept on, and crossed the line between 



CIVIL WAR— CONTINUED. 465 

tlie Carolinas. (March 8,) then entered Fayetteville, (March 
11,) and communicated with the Union army on the coast. 
This was now under General Schofield, who, with a con- 
siderable force, had come from Tennessee, by way of "Wash- 
ington, to Fort Fisher, taken Wilmington, (February 22,) 
and moved to the interior in order to join Sherman, Tlie 
junction was soon effected at Goldsboro', (March 21.) but 
not before Sherman had some severe encounters with the 
enemy, now concentrated from various quarters under 
General Johnston. Railroad communication Avas imme- 
diately established between Goldsboro* and Newbern, and 
Sherman left his army for a few days in order to meet tlie 
president and General Grant at City Point, and concert the 
final operations which were evidently at hand. 
^ ^, The armies on the north and south side of the 

Grant's 

victory James held their positions through the winter un- 
'chauged, until the left Avas extended as far as 
Hatclier's Run, (February 6.) A few weeks later General 
Sheridan was directed to bring a strong body of mounted 
men from Winchester, in the Shenandoah Valley, across 
the northern and western communications of Richmond, 
cither to Sherman's or to Grant's headquarters. He came 
to Grant's, (March 27,) having excited great alarm at the 
confederate capital. Then Grant began decisive move- 
ments. The army of the Potomac had just repelled the 
last effort of Lee to break its line, (March 27,) and now 
turned upon his lines. He could not hold them, but he 
must be attacked before retreating, and prevented from 
joining Johnston, as he was believed to intend. To turn 
his right was Grant's first object, and Sheridan gained 
it in the battle of Five Forks, (April 1.) To break 
Lee's lines was Grant's next object, and the whole array 
stained it by a common and irresistible assault, in conse- 
quence of which Lee sent word to Jefferson Davis tliat 



4G6 FAIIT IV. 1707-1372. 

Iviclimond must be evacuated, (April 2.) It was so, amid 
confusion and horror, all order lost, while flames, kindled 
by direction of the war department, were threateniug the 
Avhole city with ruin, as the Union troops came in, and 
instantly set about extinguishing the fire, (^ April 3.) That 
day, one long, broad tiirill of exultation ran through the 
loyal states. The end, they knew, was near ; the sacrifices, 
in order to attain it, were not in vaia. Grant was in pur- 
suit of the retreating army. Broken as it might be, it was 
still an army, still his great object ; and while others made 
their entry into Richmond, he, and Meade, and Sheridan, 
and the rest, pressed on for six days more, when, at Appo- 
mattox Court House, Lee surrendered the army of Northern 
Virginia, (April 9.) Again the loyal states exulted, and 
as day succeeded day, with fresh evidences of the great 
victory that had been won, the country seemed secure. 

Every thing was ao:ain pluDijed into insecurity 
Assassi- -^ ? . -1 TT . 

nation of by the assassination of the president. He had vis- 
the pres- j|gj Richmond, and returned to Washington full 
of kindly purposes towards the conquered, when an 
actor, named Booth, entered the box where he sat in a 
theatre, and shot him through the head. He lingered, un- 
conscious, for several hours, and died early on the follow- 
ing morning, (April 15.) The life of the secTetary of 
state was attempted by another hand the same night, and 
other high officers of government, it w^as believed, had been 
in peril. Andrew^ Johnson, vice president, succeeded to 
the presidency ; but his character wa.s not such as to re- 
assure those who mourned for Lincoln. They were 
millions. If ever the heart of the nation was moved as one 
man, it was then ; and the grief was all the deeper in con- 
trast with the joy that had just gone before. 
Close of The day before the president's assassination, the 
the war, secreJary of war announced his intention '*• to stop 



CIVIL WAR — CONTINUED. 407 

all draft in, or and recruitinjr in tlie loyal states," (April 13.) 
This was the same as to declare the war ended ; and so it 
proved. Mobile, after a severe siege, surrendered to Gen- 
eral Canby on the 12th of April, and the same day General 
Wilson entered Montfjomery, once the confederate capital. 
Johnston's army surrendered to Sherman on the 26th, and 
would have done so much sooner but for an eifort to 
cover other than military objects. In the following month, 
(May,) Taylor and PI K. Smith surrendered their armies 
in the south-west to General Canby. The last hostility by 
land was an engagement near Palo Alto, in Texas, (May 13.) 
The last by sea was the burning of a whaling fleet, in the 
Northern Pacific, by the cruiser Shenandoah, (June 28.) 

Wc have reserved to the close some of the liglits 
Prisoners. , , n • , . , 

and shadows m the storv ot the war. Amons: the 

shadows, none fell farther than the treatment of the Union 
prisoners by tlieir captors. There w^ere difficulties in the 
way of exchanging prisoners, at first because the govern- 
ment shrank from so far acknowledging the insurgents 
as belligerents, and afterwards because the confederates 
would exchange white prisoners alone, claiming a right to 
deal with the blacks and their white officers as criminals. 
These delays would have been hard enough for the prison- 
ers and their friends in any circumstances, but in those of 
the southern prisons they were heart-rending. At Rich- 
mond and elsewhere, in jails, warehouses, and covered 
railway bridges, — at Andersonville and other places, in 
pens, — thousands upon thousands of Union prisoners were 
exposed to barbarities almost exceeding belief. " Terrible 
beyond description," are the words applied to the Pich- 
mond prisons in a report of a confederate congressional 
committee to the secretary of war, in September, 1862. 
" A reproach to us as a nation," reports a confederate 
adjutant and inspector-general to the same official, in 



468 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

August, 1864, respecting Andersonville. A committee of 
the United States Sanitary Commission, after tliorongh in- 
quiry, reported in September, 1864, that " tens of thousands 
of helpless men have been, and are now being, disabled 
and destroyed by a process as certain as poison. . . . 
This spectacle is daily beheld and allowed by the rebel 
government. . . . The conclusion is unavoidable that 
these privations and sufferings have been designedly in- 
flicted." According to the statistics of the war depart- 
ment, one hundred and twenty-six thousand nine hundred 
and fifty soldiers were taken prisoners, and twenty-two 
thousand five hundred and seventy of these died in prison. 
It was often proposed to retaliate upon confederate prison- 
ers, but better counsels prevailed. 

Nothins: was brii>hter throuo;h these sad years 

Sanitary ^ . ., . " , , 

and Chris- than the persevermg devotion ot the people to those 
tian Com- ^y]^Q fought their battles. Men had no sooner 

missions. , , 

sprung to arms than other men, and women in 
great number, began to minister to their wants and those 
of their families. Several Soldiers' Aid Societies were 
formed, and out of these grew the United States Sanitary 
Commission, or, as it was styled in the order from the 
secretary of war, " a commission of inquiry and advice 
in respect of the sanitary interests of the United States 
forces," (June 1861.) It was not to do what the govern- 
ment was doing, but rather to do what the government 
was leaving undone, and as there was a great deal of this, 
the Commission was kept busy. Its headquarters were in 
New York, its posts all over the loyal states, its members 
and work-people, men and women, in every camp and 
every hospital, watching the well, nursing the sick, trans- 
porting the wounded, protecting the discharged, supplying 
medicine, food, clothing, books, and even games along the 
Union lines. Another organization, the Christian Com- 



CIVIL WAR — CONTINUED. 4G9 

mission, was formed (November, 1861) with immediate 
reference to the spiritual wants of the soldiers ; but its agents 
became as active as those of the Sanitary Commission 
in the relief of physical necessities. Side by side, the 
commissions distributed what the nation gave, all kinds of 
supplies and subscriptions in one steady stream, sometimes 
from a poor woman, sometimes from a man worth mil- 
lions, in individual offerings, or in various combinations. 
Fairs in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston were suc- 
cessful in raising the largest sums. At least thirty millions, 
in money and stores, passed through the agencies of the 
two Commissions. 
;^Cost of The pecuniary cost of the war to the government 
the war. ^^id the loyal states, without counting a dollar ex- 
pended by the confederates, could not have been less than 
five thousand millions. Indirectly it involved heavy losses 
in production and productive force, as every war has done ; 
but these cannot be accurately estimated. The great cost 
of the war was personal — the death of thousands in battle, 
and hospital, and, after their discharge, of wounds or dis- 
eases contracted in service, and the pain and privation oc- 
casioned by their loss to thousands upon thousands more. 
Here was the real sacrifice, and in this the dying and the 
livins: shared. Yet few would have drawn back from it, 
had they the power ; for, much as the war cost them, it 
repaid them with the sense of suffering in a great cause, 
and of contributing to great ends — the emancipation of 
four million slaves, the union of forty million freemen. 
40 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Reunion. 

Difficui- Peace had its difficulties no less than war. The 
^^^^' conquered were ready to confess their defeat, the 
conquerors to use their victory without abusing it. But 
here was a nation, split in two, to be reunited ; here was 
a society, quivering with agitation, to be calmed. One great 
class — the slaveholding — was broken up. Another — the 
slave — was suddenly thrown from slavery into freedom. 
The whole people were accustomed to war, and to all its 
consequences, public and private. Civil authority had out- 
grown its old traditions. The president and his cabinet, 
Congress, the state and municipal governments, were in the 
habitual exercise of more or less arbitrary powers. Large 
appropriations and expenditures of money were too com- 
mon to excite a healthful concern. Habits and ideas Avere 
every where changing, and not at once for the better. Oa 
the contrary, the high qualities which the danger of the 
country called out seemed sinking beneath the corruption 
and indifference which set in like a flood when the dano-er 
passed. In these circumstances, reunion was not oulv 
difficult ; it might be impracticable, and many predicted 
that it would be. 

Disarm- The first obstacle in its way was removed by the 
^^S' disarming of the nation. In May, 1865, the army 
was more than a million strong. On the 22d and 23d of 
that month more than two hundred thousand soldiers 

(470) 



REUNION. 471 

passed in review before the president, at "Washington. 
Fresh from their great victories, they looked as if they 
could do what they pleased with their unarmed country- 
men. Nor were they all. The thousands who manned 
the national fleets were equally strong in the position they 
had won. Yet all these numbers dwindled, all these armies 
and crews were disbanded with as much ease as if they 
had been vanquished instead of victorious. The secretary 
of war reported eight hundred thousand troops mustered 
out in six months, while material of every kind, stores, 
transports, railroads and their trains, telegraphs, were 
disposed of, and the army placed upon a peace footing. 
The same reduction was effected in the nav}'. Soldier or 
sailor, the volunteer disappeared in the citizen. 
Freed- The next obstacle to reunion could not be so rap- 

men. i(\\y removed. Three or four million freedmen 
were to be snatched from their former masters, or those 
who now threatened to master them, and trained to self- 
control, before tlie nation to which they belonged could be 
properly considered as united. Just as the war was closing, 
Congress established in the war department a bureau of 
freedmen, refugees, and abandoned lands, to continue during 
the war, and one year thereafter, (March, 1865.) A com- 
missioner, with an assistant for each state in insurrection 
and a number of clerks, was charged with all subjects re- 
lating to freedmen. Until the army was reduced so that it 
could no longer spare its officers, it supplied commissioners 
to the bureau. Their functions, originally, were to pro- 
vide for the sick and needy, and to distribute abandoned 
lands among the freedmen ; but few lands proved to be 
abandoned, and this part of the work fell through. Relief 
was administered in every possible form — food, clothing, 
shelter, and protection. When differences arose between 
freedmen and their employers, the commissioners served 



472 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

as arbitrators, and this service was as useful as any which 
they rendered. In July, 1866, the bureau Avas continued 
for two years longer, and its duties were enlarged so as 
to include education of the freedmen and their children. 
In this j^ood work individuals and associations had been 
engaged here and there for several years, but it was now 
extended all over the Southern States. In 1868 the bureau 
was again continued, and in 1869 it reported twenty-five 
hundred and seventy-one schools, thirty-two hundred and 
sixty-two teachers, and one hundred and sixteen thousand 
one hundred and ten scholars. In 1870 it came to an 
end, having stood between the freedmen and their trials, 
and enabled them to cross the gulf between their old con- 
dition and their new. 

A third obstacle to reunion was the position of 
Eecon- 

Btruction the States that had seceded. Whether they were 
^ ^ '^ ^^' states or not, in the Union or out of it, excited a 
great deal of discussion to little purpose. Practically, they 
were separated from the states -which had not seceded, and 
it was necessary to bring the separation to an end. As 
this involved all the authorities, confederate and state, all 
the army and navy, all the classes which had been in insur- 
rection, it was far the most severe task before the nation. 
Unhappily, its severity was increased by divisions between 
the two branches of the government employed in it ; the 
president insisting upon one course, and Congress upon 
another, until both were on the brink of failure. President 
Johnson entered upon office with loud threats of avenging 
the assassination of his predecessor, and punishing the 
treason that had excited civil war. Vengeance, however, 
Avas not in the minds of the people, and Mr. Johnson's tone 
soon softened. He issued a proclamation of amnesty to 
" all persons who have directly or indirectly participated 
in the rebellion," excepting the higher civil, military, and 



REUNION. 473 

naval officers of the confederate service, together with 
various other classes, provided that all availing themselves 
of the amnesty shoidd take and keep an oath of fidelity to 
the Constitution, the Union, and the laws and proclama- 
tions of emancipation. Next, the president appointed pro- 
visional governors of the seceded states, with instructions 
to call conventions, in order to amend the state constitu- 
tions, and enable the loyal people to recover their consti- 
tutional relations to the Union. This was done in each 
state, the conventions declaring the secession of the state 
null and void, and prohibiting slavery within its borders. 
Then the state legislatures assembled and ratified the 
thirteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United 
States. This was tlie president's plan of reconstruction. 
It left the states very much in the hands of those who had 
taken them out of the Union, without any other proviso in 
behalf of their colored people than the acceptance of eman- 
cipation. Congress met in December, 1865, and instantly 
began upon another plan. A joint committee, commonly 
called the Reconstruction Committee, was appointed, and 
entered upon long investigations. At the end of six 
mouths, (June, 1866,) it reported as a basis of reconstruc- 
tion a fourteenth constitutional amendment. This provides 
that all persons born or naturalized in the United States 
are citizens ; that the privileges of citizenship shall not be 
abridged by any state ; that if a male citizen, being twenty- 
one years old, is denied the right to vote, he cannot be 
counted in the number to be represented in Congress ; 
that no person who has broken his oath to support the 
Constitution, and engaged in insurrection, can hold office ; 
that the validity of the public debt of the United States 
shall not be questioned, but that any debt in aid of insur- 
rection, or any claim for the loss of a slave, shall be illegal. 
On this plan, it is evident that the hitherto ruling class at 
40* 



474 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

the south would retain a very limited share of authority, 
while the freedmen would be put in a position of political 
security. Freedmen were, in the first place, full citizens 
of the United States. If they were not full citizens of the 
state in which they lived, the state would suifer in its con- 
gressional representation, and would therefore be under 
pressure to give them full citizenship — in other words, the 
riofht to vote. Here was the essential diiference between 
the presidential and the congressional plans ; the latter 
sousrht suffrage for the freedman, tlie former avoided it. 
The legislature of Tennessee immediately accepted the 
fourteenth amendment, and the state was thereupon re- 
admitted to the Union, July 23, 18G6. With regard to the 
other states, a long delay ensued. The quarrel between 
the president and Congress became bitterer, and as he 
encourasred the states seekiuo^ re-admission to hold to his 
policy instead of yielding to that of Congress, they re- 
mained where they were. Congress gave suffrage to the 
freedmen in the District of Columbia, (January, 1867,) 
and admitted the state of Nebraska only on condition that 
it should not deny suffrage to the freedmen within its 
limits, (March 1.) These, and many other acts, were 
passed over the president's veto. More decisive than any 
other measure, the reconstruction act of March 2, 18G7, 
divided the ten states waiting admission into military dis- 
tricts, each Avilh its commanding officer, and so to remain 
until a convention of delegates " elected by male citizens 
twenty-one years old and upward, of whatever race, color, 
or previous condition," excepting those disqualified by the 
fourteenth amendment, should frame a state constitution, 
which, being ratified by the people and approved by Con- 
gress, should go into operation, and the legislature there- 
upon elected should adopt the fourteenth amendment, and 
it should become a part of the United States Coustitu- 



REUNION. 475 

tion. All this came to pass with seven of the states in 

the following year, Avheu North Carolina, South Carolina. 

Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, (June 25, 1868,) 

and Arkansas, (June 22,) were re-adraitted. For many, 

if not all these states, it was a cruel experience. They 

were released from military rule to pass under a civil 

rule exercised largely not by their own people, but by 

mere adventurers who had come among them with sordid 

purposes, and whose success came very near being the ruin 

of the states where they succeeded. Nearly two years 

more passed before the other three states were re-admitted, 

Virginia in January, Mississippi in February, and Texas 

in March, 1870. 

A year before this last date President Johnson's 
Impeach- , ■■ i i tt i i i 

mentof troubled term had closed. He had taken a posi- 

President tjo^ go antagonistic to Congress, that Congress 

Johnson. , , „ n • . • ^ i • 

may be excused for all its antagonism to him. 
But the extreme to which it went in impeaching him can 
be justified on no other than party grounds. An act of 
1867, regulating the tenure of certain civil offices, was 
intended to prevent the president from removing their 
incumbents, as had been the rule, without the cousent of 
the Senate. On the president's disregarding this act, and 
removing the secretary of war without consultiug the 
Senate, his opponents thought they had their opportunity of 
impeaching him, and he was accordingly impeached by the 
House of Representatives, to be tried by the Senate for 
high crimes and misdemeanors, (February, 1868.) After 
a trial lasting nearly two months, a few senators were in- 
dependent enough to vote against their party, and he was 
acquitted, (May 26.) 

Four- The fourteenth amendment was officially pro- 

tpenthanci^.|^-jj-jgj j^ p^rt of the Constitution in July, 1868. 
amend-^' Iq the following February, a fifteenth amendment 
ments. ^y^s adopted by Congress, to the intent that the 



476 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

right to vote should not be denied by the United States or 
by any state on account of race, color, or previous condi- 
tion of servitude. In March, the adminstration of Presi- 
dent Grant began, and at the end of a year, in March, 1870, 
he announced the final adoption of the amendment in a 
special message to Congress as completing " the greatest 
civil change that has occurred since the nation came into 
life." The freedman was now fully a citizen. 
Enforcing Such changes as benefited him were not accepted 
the four- |^y many of his neighbors as benefiting them. In 
amend- numerous parts of the Southern States the colored 
ment. people were much harried by the whites, who 
often turned upon their own people likewise. An associa- 
tion called the Ku-Klux spread in various quarters, and 
violence was on the increase, when Congress passed an act 
to enforce the provisions of the fourteenth amendment, 
authorizing the president to suspend the privilege of habeas 
corpus, that is, to use military power wherever the consti- 
tuted authorities did not suppress unlawful combinations, 
(April, 1871.) It may be questioned whether the remedy 
was not worse than the disease ; but Congress had become 
wonted to high-handed rule. The president made procla- 
mation exhorting " the people of those portions of the 
country to suppress all such combinations by their own 
voluntary efibrts through the agency of local laws." Re- 
luctant as President Grant was to exercise the powers 
which the act conferred, he suspended habeas corpus in 
certain parts of South Carolina, (October.) But this was 
not helping a real reunion. 

A better step was taken in May, 1872, when Con- 
gress removed all legal and political disabilities, ex- 
cept from senators and representatives of the thirty-sixth 
and thirty-seventh Congresses, (1859-63,) officers in the 
judicial, military, and naval service, heads of departments, 



REUNION. 477 

and foreign ministers, who had violated their oath to sup- 
port the Constitution. This left a very small number 
comparatively, to pay the penalty of rebellioD, and com- 
pleted, as far as legislation could complete, the work of 
reconstruction. 

Financial '^'^^ public debt did not reach its full proportions 
adminis- until some time after the close of the war. Many 
doubted the power, many more doubted tiie will, of 
the nation to bear so heavy a burden, without attemptino- 
to lighten it at the expense of those to whom it was due. 
It was, therefore, a great relief when the House of Repre- 
sentatives, on the day after it assembled in December, 
1865, voted, one hundred and sixty-two to one, that the 
public debt is sacred and inviolable, and that any attempt 
to impair it shall be promptly rejected. But the difficulty 
of wisely administering the national finances was very 
great. The best measures involved immediate sacrifices, 
which financiers, public and private, were unwilliug to make. 
Taxation was a trouble that could be remedied by means 
of reductions and improvements, until an easier system 
was established. The debt could be diminished by payin"^ 
off instalments from the surplus revenue. But the paper 
money, which constituted the only currency, and which 
affected all prices and all habits of living throughout the 
country, could not be redeemed, or even brought near to 
redemption, without some temporary losses ; and these were 
too great for the moral force of the government, as for that 
of the nation. The financial administration of seven years 
of peace left the people almost as far from a sound finan- 
cial condition as it found them. 

Civil One administrative reform was begun upon, 

service. Congress authorized the president to prescribe such 
rules and regulations for the admission of persons into the 
civil service as would promote its efficiency, (March, 1871.) 



478 • PART IV. 1797-1S72. 

The president appointed a commission, and received from 
tlicm a scheme of rules which he communicated to Con- 
gress, (December.) That body was disposed to be inactive. 
The civil service, as it stood, was at congresssional dis- 
posal ; its oihces were filled or vacated, generally speaking, 
according to the demands of members of Congress, each 
managing his OAvn locality, or claiming his share in gen- 
eral appointments. This patronage would cease with the 
reform of the civil service ; delay in reforming it was 
therefore inevitable. The commission recommended the 
competitive examination of candidates for office, and the 
probationary appointment of those who succeeded at ex- 
amination, together with securities for the tenure and pro- 
motion of deserving officers. It was a system vitally 
needed. 

Another great reform was carried farther. It 

Indians. • i » i • t , • i > 

was. the presidents plannmg and the presidents 
doing. lie brought it forward in his inaugural address, 
(March, 1869,) and followed it up by active measures. A 
board of commissioners was created to take supervision of 
the Indians. In place of the agents hitherto appointed, 
officers of the army and persons nominated by different 
religious societies were intrusted with a charge which had 
been long abused. Some reservations were placed entirely 
under the immediate control of the Society of Friends 
and other bodies which had sent missionaries among the 
Indians. " I have attempted," said President Grant, " a 
new policy towards these wards of the nation with fair re- 
sults so far as tried." Indian hostilities did not cease. 
They had broken out during the civil war, and after its 
close. They broke out again after the new policy was tried. 
But with this policy there came a hope, that had not come 
before, of winning over the Indians to civilization and 
peace. 



REUNION. 479 

Mexico ^^ turning to foreign relations, we go back to 

and the Jol\nson admiuistration. Pearly in 18GG, Mr. 

Seward wrote to the French minister at AVashin"-- 

o 

ton, reminding him that the United States desired the with- 
drawal of the French troops from Mexico. As the Em- 
peror Napoleon was weary of keeping them there, he not 
imwillingly promised to withdraw them, and, after making 
some changes in his plan, finally executed it in the first 
months of 18G7. It was the strongest assertion of the 
Monroe Doctrine that had been made by our government; 
hardly a stronger one could be made. 

Alaska ^" *''^ ^^^^^ ^^* March, 1807, a treaty with Rus- 
and Kus- sia transferred Alaska from that power to the 
United States, on the payment of a little more than 
seven millions. This great territory, though nominally col- 
onized for nearly a century, contained less than five hnndred 
Russians and Siberians in a total population of twenty- 
nine thousand. It can hardly be said to have a history. 
The first Russians to reach it came in 1731 ; the first to 
explore it came in 1741, under Behring, who soon died on 
the island named after him. Voyages led to trading-posta 
and the establishment of Russian companies for the prose- 
cution of the fur trade, in which American merchants and 
seamen also en^afijed. There was little besides the fur 
trade to characterize the territory, or to render it a desira- 
ble acquisition, when it was transferred to General Rous- 
seau, representing the United States, (October, 1867.) 
Alabama The claims of the United States against Great 
claims. Britain, for tlie depredations of the Alabama and 
other vessels in the confederate service, formed the sub- 
ject of long-continued negotiations. A treaty was con- 
cluded with the British government by the American min- 
ister, Reverdy Johnson, at the beginning of 1869, but 
rejected by the United States Senate. Two years later, 



480 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

the British minister at Washington proposed a joiut high 
commission of the two governments to settle some ques- 
tions concerning the North American fisheries, and other 
matters relating to the British Possessions. Mr. Fish, 
secretary of state, suggested the consideration of the Ala- 
bama claims bj^ the same commission, and this was ac- 
cepted. Accordingly five commissioners of each govern- 
ment, ten in all, met at Washington on the 27th of Febru- 
ary, 1871, and on the 8th of May signed the treaty of 
Washington, which was ratified by the United States 
Senate on the 24th of May, and by both governments on 
the 17th of June. By this all the Alabama claims were 
referred to a tribunal of arbitration, consisting of five 
members, one named by the president, one by the queen, 
one by the king of Italy, one by the president of the Swiss 
Confederation, and one by the emperor of Brazil. For a 
basis of arbitration, three rules were laid down as binding 
a neutral to prevent, 1st, the equipment or departure of 
any vessel to carry on war against a friendly power; 2d, 
the use of its ports or waters as a base of naval operations, 
or for the renewal of supplies against a friendly power ; 
and 3d, the violation of the foregoing obligations. Fur' 
thermore, the British commissioners were authorized to 
express regret for the escape of the Alabama and other 
vessels from British ports, and for the depredations com- 
mitted by those vessels. As to other claims between the 
two governments, or their subjects or citizens, the treaty 
referred them to a commission of three members, one 
appointed by Great Britain, one by the United States, and 
one by both powers, to sit at Washington. This was a 
great advance upon all previous negotiations, and as the 
negotiators announced, " the method of adjustment is such 
as will set a noble example to other governments in the 
interest of the peace of the world." In December, 187it, 



REUNION. 481 

the board of arbitration met at Geneva, in Switzerland, 
the United States being represented by Charles Francis 
Adams, who had served as minister to Great Britain for 
seven years from the beginning of the civil war. At this 
meeting the American and British cases were presented, 
and the arbitrators then adjourned, to re-assemble in June, 
1872. Before that date, the treaty and the tribunal both 
came very near dissolution. A paragraph was found in 
the American case urging what was known as the indirect 
claims, or, as they were vaguely understood, the liability 
of Great Britain for all the expenses of the civil war after 
the battle of Gettysburg ; because, after that, as was alleged, 
the offensive operations of the insurgents were conducted 
only at sea through the cruisers, and the war was pro- 
longed for that purpose. Happily, the indignation excited 
by these suggestions in England was not sustained by any 
support to them from the American people, who had little 
mind to follow up such claims. The board of arbitra- 
tion met on the 15th of June, 1872, and on the 28th set 
the indirect claims aside. On the 14tli of September they 
gave their decision, — the British arbitrator dissenting, — 
that Great Britain should pay fifteen and a half million 
dollars as indemnity to the United States. In this decision 
the two governments and the two nations acquiesced. 
Settle- Abroad and at home, the immediate consequences 

ment. q£ ^j^g -^y^r were now settled. Legislation and ne- 
gotiation had rendered the reunion of the American people 
possible. Only the virtue of the people themselves could 
render it real. 

41 



CHAPTER XV. 

National Development. 

Three The period from 1797 to 1872 forms a large 

ofrcen- P^^'^ ^^ *^"^ history. Tliree quarters of a century 
tury. is a long time in any national life, and particularly 
in such a one as ours. In 1797, the United States, sixteen 
in number, were just beginning to reach over the Allegha- 
nies towards the basins and prairies of the west ; they had 
not even begun to approach the Gulf of Mexico. The 
people numbered fiv^e millions. Independent, they were 
yet dependent ; they accepted the half subordinate position 
accorded to them by the European powers, and pursued a 
policy towards some of these powers which may almost be 
described as colonial, rather than national. Within their 
own borders, they were not altogether masters ; the soil 
had not yet yielded half its treasures ; the rivers, even of the 
east, were but partly navigated ; the great lakes undotted 
by a sail ; the highways rough and infrequent ; the mails 
slow, though light ; the resources of the nation hardly 
touched, in fact, hardly known. In 1872, the states num- 
bered thirty-seven. The territory embraced three million 
square miles, stretching from ocean to ocean, besides more 
than five hundred thousand in the north-west of the continent. 
The population reached all but forty millions. Immigration 
brought in eight millions during the period, and their chil- 
dren and descendants swelled the increasing numbers. The 
nation stood face to face with the greatest states of Europe 

(482) 



NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 483 

on equal terms. It handled its own possessions with 
vigor, cultivating its lands, working its mines, multiplying 
its fabrics, covering its waters with vessels, traversing its 
plains with railways, multiplying its facilities, and using 
its opportunities. There had been interruptions. Wars 
broke out, and commercial crises occurred at intervals, but 
the injuries they caused seemed to be repaired by the pros- 
perity which soon followed them. The three quarters of 
a century, taken as a whole, was one long growth in size, 
and strength, and riches. 

Causes Nothing like it was to be seen elsewhere. Europe 
at work, grew, and European colonies grew, but not as the 
Uuited States, not as rapidly, not as widely. Indeed, the 
difference is so great, the growth of the United States is so 
w^onderful, that there has been some difficulty in accounting 
for it. The Americans are not so evidently braver, or 
wiser, or more industrious, or more ambitious, than their 
contemporaries, as to be fitted to outstrip them. Nor is 
the country so much more productive, or any of its natural 
advantages so superior, as to explain its exceptional de- 
velopment. The causes at work have been partly physical, 
but chiefly political. The climate, soil, extent of territory 
waiting occupation, easy communication from one part to 
another, liave all contributed to the great result. But it 
would never have been so great had it not been yet more 
furthered by the national institutions, and particularly by 
the principle of self-government on which they rest. Of 
all people, ancient or modern, none have been left to gov- 
ern themselves so much as the American. None have 
been trained to such independence, to such mobility, to 
such power of improving the circumstances in which they 
may be pla'ced. It is this which has remedied, as well as 
produced, the defects in the national character, and the 
errors in the national life ; it is this, more than any other 



484 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

single cause, which has brought the national development 
to its present point. 

Public The self-relying spirit of the nation is fed by the 

schools, public schools, as a stre m by its fountain. 1. As 
a system of administration, the schools, being left to local 
management, favor the exercise of local authority. The 
only schools under control of the general government are 
those in the District of Columbia, the Military Academy at 
West Point, (1802,) and the Naval Academy at Annapolis, 
(1845.) A Bureau of Education, recently connected with 
the department of the interior, has no other function than 
to collect and distribute educational information. All that 
the government has to do with the schools throughout the 
country is to make over that share of the public laud in 
each township which Congress has reserved for the sup- 
port of public education. The state governments, as a rule, 
control only the normal and charitable schools of their 
foundation, and by no means all of these. The great mass 
of schools is under municipal administration. 2. As a 
system of instruction, the public schools tend to develop 
the national traits in their scholars. They give the same 
privileges to every child, training the native and the for- 
eigner, the Teuton, the Celt, and the African, on equal 
terms. After the emancipation of 1863, and more par- 
ticularly after the extension of the Freedmen's Bureau in 
1866, provision for that great class before unprovided for 
■was made first by the national, afterwards by local author- 
ity, and children of color were taken into the schools. 
The instruction of all classes at the south was much en- 
couraged by the munificence of George Peabody, who 
placed three and a half millions in the hands of trustees in 
order to promote southern education, (1866-9.) There 
still remain great gaps, not in any one section, but almos*^ 
every where ; yet the general working of the school systec^ 



NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 485 

is beneficial to a degree that can hardly be overestimated. 
It gives a stamp to the mind and life of its children which 
it is difficult to see how they would otherwise receive. It 
fits them if native born, and doubly fits them if forei'ni 
born, for the citizenship that awaits them, for the self- 
government to M-hich, one by one, and all together, they 
are called. 

Higher Institutes, colleges, and universities — the latter 

education. ifj(^.l^,^ljQg professional and scientific schools — are 
chiefly of private foundation. Here, too, in more or less 
connection with the common schools, the self-soveruin'T^ 
principle is maintained. The higher institutions of learn- 
ing were very few and very feeble at the beginning of the 
period. They have become more numerous and more 
vigorous ; but they are still in a state of transition to better 
things. 

Public '^ ill within the last quarter of a century, libraries 

libraries, ^vere private, or belonged to private corporations, 
except those of Congress and the state governments. The 
Astor Library, founded by its first librarian, Joseph G. 
Cogswell, ratlier than by the merchant who endowed it, 
led the long line of public libraries which have arisen in 
many of our smallest towns as well as our largest cities. 
Though not always wisely collected or wisely used, they 
have supplied what was always needed to accompany or to 
follow the studies of the schools. 

Art mu^ Just as the period closes, a new movement be- 
seums. gins with the foundation of art museums in New 
York and Boston. These, also, will supply a great want 
in education. 

The literature that produced but little in the sev- 

Letters 

enteenth and eighteenth centuries continued to pro- 
duce but little in the early part of the nineteenth ; then it 
became more fruitful. Washington Irving was the first of 
41 * 



486 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

our men of letters, properly so called. He wrote history, 
biography, travels, and legendary and sentimental tales, 
all in a sunshiny style, which gave our literature a new- 
charm. Cooper wrote his stories of Indians and back- 
woodsmen, seamen and soldiers, with a fervor which made 
one foriret the unnaturalness of his characters. Maria 
Brooks wrote the impassioned verse of Zophiel ; Lydia 
Sigourney was less poetic, but perhaps more winning in 
her simpler strains. Percival and Halleck were happy in 
their lyric efforts. William Croswell wrote poems as 
flowers dropped along the path of priestly offices ; yet, had 
they been his work, instead of his pastime, he would not 
have lived in vain. Almost the same thing may be said 
of Andrews Norton, whose little cluster of hymns will 
move many a heart beyond the reach of the theological 
and critical labors in which he spent his days. Webster's 
speeches were the great landmark in our political litera- 
ture. None of our public men compared with him in 
breadth of thought or force of language. Everett's ora- 
tions were the graceful work of a rhetorician rather than a 
statesman. Kent and Story were the great expounders 
of our laws. Jared Sparks gave his honest toil to the his- 
tory and biography of the nation. His editions of Wash- 
ington's and Franklin's Writings revived the interest in 
them and their times. Prescott turned to the brilliant epi- 
sodes of Spain, and the Spanish possessions in America, 
and gave them so picturesque a treatment, as to win read- 
ers every where, at home and abroad. Ticknor was the 
historian of Spanish literature, and on so comprehensive a 
plan, as to set a new example to American scholars. Na- 
thaniel Hawthorne sought out a mythical background for 
his creations, and then filled in their wavering outline with 
deep color and solemn shade. Fiction became more and 
more attractive to our writers, and they wrote with in- 



NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 487 

creasing mastery. Poetry put on a new aspect as It was 

iuterpreted by Bryant and Longfellow, Wliittier, Emerson, 

and Lowell, to whom the nation owes a very large propor- 

titui of what is best in its intellectual life. History contin- 

ned to find followers, and Bancroft, Motley, Palfrey, and 

Parkman were among the most successful. 

Scientific culture was very irreatly on the increase. 
Science, t /• ^ ^ j 

Its two foremost names are of foreign origin. John 

James Audubon, born in Louisiana long before its acqui- 
sition by the United States, was the author of a work on 
the Birds of America, far surpassing any similar publica- 
tion before attempted in this country. Audubon belongs 
to the former half of the period under review, Agassiz 
to the latter. This eminent naturalist, not so much a 
Swiss as an American, has published important volumes 
on the natural history of the United States ; but his most 
important work is the foundation of the Museum of Com- 
parative Zoology at Cambridge. Nathaniel Bowditch de- 
serves to be remembered as the translator and commenta- 
tor of the Mecanique Celeste of La Place. The United 
States Coast Survey and Observatory have been of great 
benefit to science. Universities and scientific schools, or 
those upon their stafi^s who have been active in research, 
have stimulated scientific studies in almost every direction. 
Gilbert Stuart was the great portrait painter, not 

Art. 

only of his own day, but of the whole period. His 
faces live and speak like those of the greatest masters. 
Washington Allston was at once the portrait and the his- 
torical painter, the landscape and the ideal artist, in whom 
all that is most sublime and all that is most delicate found 
full expression. He stands in our artistic, like Irving in 
our literary history, the first to give American art its 
charm. Crawford came later, the most imaginative of 
our sculptors, but with less power to execute his concep- 



488 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

tions than they deserved. Greenough and Powers, Story 
and Ball, have all won high places in sculpture. Cole, 
Kensett, Hunt, and many more, form a group of 
painters to whom the country is more indebted than it 
knows. Music has taken strong hold upon some of our 
communities. It has come with the musically educated 
immigrants, and grown among the American born, par- 
ticularly since it was introduced into the public schools. 
But it has as yet inspired no great composers of our own. 
luven- The best American ideas are often said to be 

tions. those of our inventors. Eli Whitney's cotton gin. 
Hoe's printing press, McCormick's and other reapers, 
Howe's and other sewing machines, the numerous im- 
provements in all sorts of machinery and manufactures, — 
these are levers by which the national development has 
been very greatly promoted. Fulton's steamboat, the Cler- 
mont, appeared on the Hudson in 1807. First of our rail- 
ways was the Quincy, in Massacluisetts, a single track 
between three and four miles long, for transporting granite 
from a quarry to the water's edge, (1827.) First of our 
locomotives was one upon the Hudson and Mohawk Rail- 
road in New York, (1832.) First of our and all other 
electric telegraphs was that constructed by Morse between 
Washington and Baltimore, and its first message was, 
"What hath God wrought!" (1844.) The first Atlantic 
cable was laid in 1858, but failed after a momentary suc- 
cess ; the second parted in mid-ocean, (1865,) and the third 
succeeded, (1866.) No one man deserves the credit of 
this great enterprise so much as Cyrus W. Field. 
Expcdi- The expeditions of survey and discovery, mostly 
tious, undertaken by the government, form a striking 
feature of the period. That of Lewis and Clarke, to which 
we referred in connection with Oregon, was a very re- 
markable achievement for the time. It occupied more 



NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 489 

than two years (1804-6) and crossed the coutiuent from 
the Mississippi to the mouth of the Cohimbia. Thirty- 
years later (1838-42) an exploring expedition, consisting 
of several vessels under the command of Lieutenant 
Charles Wilkes, and carrying a corps of scientific men, 
sailed on a long cruise through the Antarctic and Pacific 
Oceans. Lieutenant William F. Lynch, of the navy, made 
exploration of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, (1847.) 
Two Grinnell expeditions, so called from Henry Grinnell, 
through whose liberality they were mainly fitted out, sought 
for the English voyagers under Sir John Franklin, then 
missing in the Arctic Seas. The first was commanded by 
Lieutenant De Haven, of the navy, (1850-51 ;) the second 
by Dr. Kane, also of the navy, who had served on the 
first as surgeon, (1853-5.) A squadron, under Commo- 
dore Perry, brother of the Perry of Lake Erie, was sent 
to Japan to negotiate a treaty, by which the ports of that 
country were opened to American commerce, (1852-4.) 
Later expeditions explored our western and south-western 
territories, or traversed Central America and the Isthmus 
of Darien, with the view of cutting a canal to connect the 
Atlantic with the Pacific. Of all the expeditions, none have 
honored the nation or humanity more than those which 
carried succor to foreign lands. When Ireland was starv- 
ing, in 1847, Madeira, in 1852, and the cotton manufac- 
turing shires of England, in 1862, supplies were sent from 
our people as to fellow-countrymen. In some of these suc- 
cors the government shared by providing vessels from the 
navy to carry the food furnished by private benevolence. 

Our national charities began at home. Societies 
Charities. . ° 

to relieve the poor, the sick, and the prisoner, exr 

isted in the foregoing century ; they were largely extended 
in this. Schools and asylums were opened for all suffer- 
ing classes, beginning with the American Asylum for the 



490 PART IV. 1797-1872. 

Deaf and Dumb in Hartford, (1817,) the Perkins Institu- 
tion and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind in Boston, 
(1832,) and the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble- 
minded Youth, also in Boston, (1848.) Associations for 
the care of destitute or vicious children, erring women, 
and the aged of both sexes, have done their various work 
in all quarters. Missions to the ignorant and outcast have 
been unwearied in reclaiming them. Bible and tract so- 
cieties have distributed their publications wherever an 
opening could be found. Besides these organizations, in- 
dividuals have labored, openly or secretly, in relieving the 
spiritual and physical necessities of their neighbors. Could 
it be fairly described, the ministry to every form of want 
and crime would make the best pages in our history. 
Draw- '^^ '<^ this national development there have been, 

backs. j^Q(j there still are, very serious drawbacks. They 
spring, to a great degree, from the development itself. 
Corruption follows hard upon gi-owth in society, as in na- 
ture, and its effects are as fatal in one as in the other. 
Wealth grows, and the passion l"or it grows faster. Labor 
struggles not only with capital, but with labor ; trade is 
tainted with dishonest practices ; life itself is lowered by 
the readiness with which men forsake its higher callino;s 
because they are less lucrative than the lov/er. Power in- 
creases, and the lust for it increases likewise. Candidates 
for office stoop to mean conditions. Office-holders stoop 
yet lower, and whether in town or city, state or national 
government, degrade themselves and their authority. For 
some of our forms of disgrace, new words, or words with 
new meaning, arc required, and strangers and children 
ask what is a rhixj^ or a lohhy^ and sometimes fail to under- 
stand it when explained. If the results of political cor- 
ruption were confined to those who indulge in it, the injury 
would be far less formidable. But they spread on every 



NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 49 1 

side, they infect our institutious, they poison the spirit of 
our people. These evils are not new. They were lament- 
ed when the nation was born, in the very throes of the 
revolution, while such as loved the country were pledo-ino- 
to it their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors, and 
others were making money out of its trials, or turniuo- its 
agonies to their own preferment. It is only that the evils 
are more apparent than they used to be. They have a 
larger area, a more numerous following ; and so the 
shadows which they cast seem to shut out more of the light 
that should be shining. There is but one way to dispel 
them — by consecrating the nation to a higher service, and 
giving ourselves to it, one and all. 



INDEX. 



A. 

Abenakis, 49, 99, 101, 128, 130. 
Abolitionist societies, 284, 370, 

371. 
Abolitionists, early, 369. 
Abolitionists, later, 370, 374. 
Acadie, 10, 11, 13, 119, 123. 
Adams, Charles E., 424, 431, 

453, 481. 
Adams, John, 177, 183, 184, 202, 

203, 220, 243, 256, 277, 287, 

296. 
Adams, John, President, 305, 

309. 
Adams, John, afterwards, 352. 
Adams, John Quincy, 292, 344, 

354, 358. 
Adams, John Quincy, President, 

360, 361. 
Adams, Samuel, 179, 183. 
Addresses of Congress to Great 

Britain, 168, 184, 195. 
Admiralty jurisdiction, 167. 
African Company, 151. 
Africans, 52. 
Agassiz, L., 487. 
Alabama, 122, 351, 414, 475. 
Alabama cruiser, 453, 461. 
Alabama claims, 479, 481. 
Alaska, 479. 

Albany Convention, 414. 
Algiers, tribute to, 291. 
Algiers, war with, 346. 
Algonquins, 11, 48, 49. 
Alien Act, 311. 
Allen, Ethan, 191. 
42 



Allouez, Claude, 120. 
Allston, W., 487. 
Amendments to Constitution, 

279, 340, 462, 473, 475. 
American Anti-slavery Society, 

371. 
American Association of 1774, 

183, 187. 
American system, 362. 
Ames, Fisher, 301. 
Amnesty, 472, 476. 
Anderson, Robert, 412, 418, 420, 

421. 
Andre, Major, 232. 
Andros, Sir Edmund, 88, 90, 

100, 126. 
Antietam battle, 438. 
Anti-slavery movement, 369, 

371. 
Argal, 43. 
Arizona, 408. 

Arkansas, 352, 378, 423, 475. 
Armed Neutrality league, 234. 
Army of the revolution, 192, 

193, 211, 218, 244, 245. 
Army of 1812, 327, 336. 
Army of the civil war, 426, 428, 

et seq. 455, 470, 471. 
Army of the Potomac, 432, 436, 

437, 439, 447, 448, 449, 457, 

465. 
Arnold, Benedict, 191, 196, 209, 

232, 237, 240. 
Art, 143, 478. 
Art Museums, 485. 
Assemblies, colonial, 71. 
Astor Library, 485. 

493 



494 



INDEX 



Atlanta taken, 459. 
Audubon, J, J., 487. 
Aviles, MeneMez de, 6, 9. 



B. 

Bacon, Nathaniel, 87. 

Bailey, Colonel, 456. 

Bainbridge, Captain, 333. 

Ball, T., 488. 

Ball's Bluff battle, 432. 

Baltimore, Lord, 82. 

Baltimore, Benedict, Lord, 59. 

Bancroft, G., 487. 

Banking, colonial, 155. 

Banking, national, 444. 

Bank of North America, 254. 

Bank, United States, 282, 349, 
376. 

Banks, General, 436, 437, 447, 
456. 

Baptists, 73, 74, 145. 

Barron, Captain, 320. 

Bartram, John, 143. 

Bartram, William, 143. 

Bayard, James A., 344. 

Bayonne decree, 321. 

Beauregard, General, 420, 429. 

Belcher, Jonathan, 154. 

Belknap, Jeremy, 271. 

Bennington battle, 214. 

Berkeley, George, 144. 

Berkeley, Lord, 61. 

Berkeley, Sir William, 87, 88, 
140. 

Berlin decree, 319. 

Bernard, Francis, 157. 

Berrien, John M., 384, 396. 

Bible, colonial editions, 141. 

Billings, William, 275. 

Bishops for the colonies, 146. 

Black Hawk, 378. 

Blackstone, William, 32. 

Bladensburg battle, 335. 

Block, Adrian, 40. 

Blockade, president's proclama- 
tion of, 423. 

Blockade, following, 430, 451, 
463. 



Board of revenue commission- 
ers, 173. 
Board of Trade, 150. 
Bonhomme Richard, 229. 
Boston, 29, 30, 91, 149, 156, 174, 

178, 186. 
Boston massacre, 176, 177. 
Boston port-bill, 180. 
Boston, siege of, 194, 198. 
Bowditch, N., 487. 
Bowdoin, James, 250. 
Bowne, John, 108. 
Boyle, Robert, 95. 
Braddock's defeat, 132, 133. 
Bradford, William, 25, 26, 27, 

44, 142. 
Bradstreet, Simon, 84, 89. 
Bragg, General, 454, 455. 
Brainard, David, 104. 
Brandywine battle, 215. 
Bridgewater battle, 331. 
Brier Creek battle, 226. 
Brooks, Maria, 486. 
Brown, General, 330, 331. 
BroAvn, John, 407, 408. 
Bryant, W. C, 487. 
Buchanan, James, President, 

405, 410. 
Buell, General, 433, 439. 
Buena Vista battle, 387. 
Bull Run battle, 428. 
Bull Run, second, 437. 
Bunker Hill, 193. 
Burgoyne, surrender of, 214. 
Burke, Edmund, 188, 197. 
Burnet, William, 153. 
Burnside, General, 434, 439, 

454, 455, 457. 
Burr, Aaron, 318. 
Butler, General, 427, 434, 457, 

464. 

c. 

Cabal against Washington, 217. 
Cabot, George, 339. 
Cabot, John, 14. 
Cabot, Sebastian, 15, 40. 
California, 7, 116, 388, 393, 396, 
397. 



INDEX 



495 



Calhoun, John C, 32G, 304, 305^ 
367, 3G8, 3G9, 372, 383, 395, 
399. 

Calvert, Sir George, 19, 35. 

Camden battle, 230. 

Canada, 11, 13, 119, 134, 135. 

Canada, expedition against, 196. 

Canhy, General, 456, 467. 

Canonchet, 99. 

Canonicus, 97. 

Cai)tain-Generals of colonies, 
151. 

Carleton, Sir Guy, 241. 

Carolana, 37, 59, 122. 

Carolina, 6, 9, 16, 59, 69, 112. 

Carolina, North, 59, 177, 201, 
205, 272, 279, 285, 423, 475. 

Carolina, South, 59, 11J3, 205, 
363, 365, 374, 410, 411, 475. 

Carolina steamer, 379. 

Carroll, John, Bishop, 259. 

Carteret, Sir George, 61. 

Cartier, 9. 

Carver, John, 2G. 

Cass, Lewis, 412. 

Catesby, Mark, 144. 

Cedar Creek battle, 458. 

Cedar Mountain battle, 437. 

Central American republics rec- 
ognized, 356. 

Cerro Gordo battle, 391. 

Champlain, 11, 125. 

Chanceilorsville battle, 447. 

Charities, 489. 

Charleston, defence of, 208, 226. 

Charleston, loss of, 230. 

Charleston, recovery of, 241. 

Charleston post-office, 372. 

Charleston taken in civil war, 
464. 

Charter governments, 30, 69. 

Chattanooga battle, 455. 

Checkley, John, 146. 

Cherokees, 102, 361. 

Chesapeake and Leopard, 319. 

Chesapeake and Shannon, 334. 

Chiokamauga battle, 454. 

Child, Robert, 72. 

Chippewa battle, 331. 

Christian Commission, 468. 



Churches, 72, 259, 278. 
Churcli of England, 145. 
Churubusco battle, 392. 
Cincinnati, defence of, 438. 
Cincinnati Society, 249. 
Civil service reform, 477. 
Clarke, Jobn, 73. 
Classes in tlie colonies, 66, 164. 
Clay, Henry, 326, 344, 354, 355, 

368, 383, 396, 397, 399. 
Clayborne, William, 37. 
Clinton, George, 318. 
Clinton, Governor, 154. 
Clinton, Sir Henry, 221, 229, 

239. 
Cogswell, J. G., 485. 
Cold Harbor battle, 457. 
Cole, T., 488. 
Colleges : 

Harvard, 21, 74, 77, 174. 

Henrico, 21. 

King's, 139. 

New Jersey, 139. 

Pennsylvania, 139. 

William and Mary, 139. 

Yale, 139. 
Colored troops, 452, 453. 
Columbus, 3, 4, 14. 
Commander-in-chief, colonial, 

157, 163. 
Commerce, treaties of, 292. 
Committees of Correspondence, 

172, 178. 
Committees of Safety, 186. 
Companies : 

Dutch, 40, 41. 

French, 117, 124. 

London, 18, 19, 34. 

Massachusetts Bay, 29. 

New England, 24, 33. 

Plymoutli, 18, 23, 34. 

Swedish, 46. 
Compromises of tlie Constitu- 
tion, 267, 268, 269. 
Compromise of 1850, 397, 398, 

400, 401. 
Conant, Roger, 28. 
Conciliation, Lord North's bills, 

221. 
Concord battle, 189. 



496 



INDEX 



Confederate government, 415. 
Confederation, Articles of, 205, 

234, 253, 261, 264. 
Congress, Stamp Act, 68. 
Congress, Continental, 182. 
Congress of the revolution, 191, 

195, 205, 219, 235. 
Congress in the civil war, 427, 

444, 457. 
Congress after the civil war, 

471, 472, 473, 474, 475, 476, 

477. 
Congress of Panama, 360. 
Congress of Vienna, 345. 
Connecticut, 32, 44, 57, 85, 89, 

90, 205, 338, 341, 351. 
Conner, Commodore, 390. 
Constellation and L'Insurgente, 

311. 
Constitution, National, 259 et 

seq. 
Constitutions, state, 205. 
Constitution, Cyane and Levant, 

343. 
Constitution and Guerriere, 333. 
Constitution and Java, 333. 
Contraband — slaves, 427. 
Contreras battle, 392. 
Conventions : 

Alexandria, 260. 
Annapolis, 260. 
Philadelphia, 260, 262 et seq. 
Cooper, J. F., 486. 
Copley, J. S., 144. 
Cornwaliis, Lord, 230, 283, 236, 

238, 239. 
Coronado, Vasquez, 6. 
Cortereal, 5. 
Cowpens battle, 236. 
Coxe, Daniel, 122, 148. 
Crawford, T., 487. 
Creeks, 361, 362, 378. 
Crisis of 1837, 376. 
Crisis of 1857, 406. 
Crittenden, John J., 411. 
Crittenden compromise, 411, 

415. 
Cross Keys battle, 437. 
Croswell, William, 486. 
Crown, allegiance to, 83. 



Crozat, Antoine, 122. 
Cruger, Henry, 187. 
Cuba, acquisition of, 401. 
Culpepper, Lord, 58. 



Dablon, Claude, 120. 

Dahcotas, 48. 

Dahlgren, Admiral, 451. 

Dare, Virginia, 16. 

Davenport, John, 33. 

Davie, William R., 313. 

Davis, Captain, 433. 

Davis, Jefferson, 415, 463, 465. 

De Ayllon, 6. 

De Cabrillo, 6. 

De Cancello, 6. 

De Coligny, 9. 

De Espejio, 7. 

D'Estaing, Comte, 223, 224, 227. 

De Gourgues, 10. 

De Grasse, Comte, 239, 240. 

De Haven, Lieutenant, 489. 

D'Ibervillc, Lemoine, 122, 127. 

De Kalb, Baron, 230. 

De Monts, 10. 

De Narviiez, 6. 

De Saussaye, 11. 

De Soto, 6. 

Deane, Silas, 220. 

Dearborn, General Henry, 327, 
330. 

Debt, public, 280, 281, 347, 376, 
428, 444, 445, 477. 

Debts due British merchants, 
256. 

Decatur, Captain, 333, 347. 

Declaration of rights and liber- 
ties by Stamp Act Congress, 
168, 169. 

Declaratory Act, 173. 

Defender of the Constitution, 
364. 

Delaware, 63, 205, 272. 

Delawares, 102. 

Democrats, 288. 

Dickinson, John, 173, 183, 202, 



INDEX 



497 



Dickinson, Mrs. J., 233. 
Dictatorsliip of Washington, 

212. 
District of'Louisiana, 817. 
Doniphan, Colonel, 388. 
Dorr, Tliomas W., 377. 
Douglas, Stephen A., 401, 407. 
Draft, 450. 
Draft riots, 451. 
Drake, Sir Francis, 15, 16. 
Dred Scott case, 405. 
Drummond, William, 88. 
Dunster, Henry, 74. 
Dupont, Admiral, 451. 
Duties laid by Parliament, 8G, 

155, 157, 166. 



E. 

East Tennessee, 454. 
Eaton, Theophilus, 33. 
Education, 138, 484, 485. 
Edwards, Jonatiian, 104, 142. 
Eliot, John, 32, 84, 93, 94, 96. 
Ellswortli, Oliver, 313. 
Emancipation, 439, 440. 
Emancipiition proclamations, 

441, 442. 
Embargo, 298, 321, 324, 337. 
Emerson, 1{. W., 487. 
Endicott, John, 28. 
Enforcing Acts, 307, 470. 
Ericsson, Jolin, 435. 
Essex and Alert, 333. 
Eutaw Springs battle, 237. 
Everett, Edward, 450, 486. 
Expeditions, 488. 



F. 

Fair Oaks battle, 430. 

Farragut, Commodore and Ad- 
miral, 434, 401. 

Federal and anti-federal, 204, 
200. 

Federalist and anti-federalist, 
274, 282. 

42 * 



Federalist, The, 272. 
Federalists, fall of, 315. 
Federal Eepublican newspaper, 

320. . 
Field, C. W., 488. 
Fifteenth Amendment, 475. 
Fillmore, Millard, President, 

397. 
Fisli, Hamilton, 480. 
Fisher's Mill battle, 458. 
Five Nations, 49, 101, 125, 127, 

128, 129, 130, 131. 
Fletcher, Benjamin, 90. 
Florida, 5, 0, 8, 9, 112, 113, 110, 
243, 293, 323, 350, 378, 414, 
475. 
Foot's Resolution, 304. 
Foote, Commodore, 433. 
Forts : 

Beauregard, 430. 

Bowyer, 341, 342. 

Casimir, 109. 

Christina, 47, 109. 

Clark, 430. 

Donclson, 433. 

Du Quesne, 132, 134. 

Erie, 331, 332. 

Fislier, 403. 

George, 331. 

Hatteras, 430. 

Henry, 433. 

Jackson, 434. 

Lee, 209. 

Macon, 434. 

McAllister, 400. 

McIIenry, 355, 427. 

Meigs, 328. 

Mercer, 216. 

Mifflin, 210. 

Mimms, 330. 

Monroe, 423, 427. 

Movdtrie, 208, 4i2. 

Ninetv-Six, 237. 

Pickens, 420, 42b. 

Pillow, 453. 

Pulaski, 434. 

Schuyler, 214. 

St. Philip, 434. 

Stevenson, 32A 

Sullivan, 208. 



498 



INDEX 



Fort Sumter, 412, 413, 418, 420, 

421, 451, 452, 464. 
Wagner, 452. 
Walker, 430. . 
Washington, 209. 
Fourteenth Amendment, 473, 

475, 476. 
France and the United States, 

220, 293, 297, 302, 309, 310, 

313, 319, 378, 379, 424, 456, 

457, 479. 
Frankland, or Franklin, 251. 
Franklin battle, 460. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 140, 142, 

149, 172, 182, 203, 220, 243, 

263, 265, 270. 
Franklin, General, 456. 
Fredericksburg battle, 439. 
Freedmen, 471, 474, 476. 
Freedmen's Bureau, 471, 472. 
Free-soil party, 395, 404. 
Fremont, John C, 389, 437, 440. 
Frenchtown battle, 328. 
Freneau, Philip, 274. 
Fugitive Slave Act, 398, 462. 
Fulton, R., 488. 



a. 

Gadsden, Cliristopher, 168, 183, 

186. 
Gage, General, 180, 182, 186, 

191. 
Gaines, General, 332. 
Gaines' Mill l)attle, -VoG. 
Gallatin, Albert, 288, 325, 344. 
Garrison, William L., 370, 371, 

oi 4. 
Gaspe, revenue schooner, 177. 
Gates, General, 214, 217, 230. 
Genet's mission, 295, 296. 
Geneva, Board of Arbitration 

at, 481. 
Georgia, 63, 114, 195, 205, 361, 

414, 475. 
Georgia, loss of, 226. ^ 
Georgia, recovery, 241. 
Gcrmantown battle, 215. 



Gerry, Elbridge, 267, 270, 309, 
347. 

Gettyslnirg battle, 4^48, 450. 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 15, 16. 

Giles, W. B., 304. 

Gillmore, General, 451. 

Godfrey, Thomas, 143. 

Goldsborough, Commodore, 434. 

Gomez, 6, 40. 

Gookin, Daniel, 95. 

Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 23, 27, 
28, 30, 55. 

Gorton, Samuel, 79. 

Gosnold, Bartholomew, 17, 19. 

Government, United States, or- 
ganized, 276, 277, 279. 

Governor-Generals of New Eng- 
land, 35, 36. 

Grant, U. S., General, 433, 439, 
445, 446, 455. 

Grant, U. S., Lieutenant-Gene- 
ral, 455, 457, 458, 459, 460, 
464, 465, 466. 

Grant, U. S., President, 476, 
477, 478. 

Gray, Captain, 386. 

Great Britain and the United 
States, 244, 256, 293, 297, 319, 
320, 323, 325 et seq., 379, 386, 
424, 431, 453, 479. 

Great Meadows battle, 132. 

Greece, aid to, 359. 

Greene, Colonel Christopher, 
216. 

Greene, General Nathanael, 231, 
236. 

Greenough, II., 488. 

Grenville, Sir Kichard, 16. 

Grierson, Colonel, 446, 450. 

Grinnell, II., 489. 

Guilford battle, 236. 



Habeas corpus, 69. 

Habeas corpus in the civil war, 

426, 427, 451. 
Habeas corpus afterwards, 476- 
Hakluyt, Kichard, 19. 



INDEX 



499 



Halleck, T.-G., 48G. 
Halleck, General, 432, 433. 
Hamilton, Alexander, 210, 235, 

2od, 260, 2G3, 2G4, 272, 279, 

287, 298, 318. 
Hamilton, Andrew, 141. 
Hampton, General, 330. 
Hancock, General, 449, 457. 
Hancock, John, 174, 18G. 
Hanover Court House battle, 

436. 
Hanson, Alexander, 326, 327. 
Hariier's Ferry, 423, 438. 
Harrisburg Convention, 362. 
Harrison, William H., 323, 328, 

329. 
Harrison, William H., President, 

380. 
Hartford Convention, 338, 339, 

340. 
Harvey, Reuben, 243. 
Hawley, Joseph, 175, 184. 
HaAvthorne, N., 486. 
Hayne, Robert Y., 364. 
Hazen, General, 460. 
Heath, Sir Robert, 37. 
Heckewelder, John, 291. 
Hendrickson, Cornelius, 41. 
Henry, Patrick, 167, 183, 184. 
Hoar, Samuel, 374, 375. 
Hobkirk's Hill battle, 236. 
Holt, Joseph, 413. 
Holy Alliance, 356. 
Hood, General, 459, 460. 
Hooker, General, 447, 448, 455. 
Hopkinson, Francis, 274. 
Hornet and Penguin, 343. 
Houston, Samuel, 381, 382. 
Howard, General, 460. 
Howe, Admiral, 204, 208. 
Howe, General, 204, 208, 210, 

215. 
Hubbard, Henry, 374. 
Hudson, Henry, 39, 40. 
Hull, Captain Isaac, 333. 
Hull, General William, 328. 
Hunt, William, 488. 
Hunter, General, 440. 
Hutchinson, Anne, 32. 
Hyde, Lord Cornbury, 152. 



I. 

Illinois, 120, 222, 318, 351. 

Impressment, 297, 319, 325, 344, 
345, 380. 

Imprisonment of colored sea- 
men, 374. 

Incendiaries, act for trial of, 
178. 

Indented servants, GG. 

Independence, ideas of, 190, 201. 

Independence, resolutions of, 

202, 203. 
Independence, declaration of, 

203, 204, 207. 
Indian missions, 291. 

Indian policy of Washington's 

administration, 290. 
Indian policy of Grant's, 478. 
Indiana, 123*^, 318, 351. 
Indirect claims, 481. 
Institutions, colonial, 20, 21, 2G, 

30, 31, 36, 38, 68, 118. 
Inventions, 488. 
Iowa, 378. 

Irish prisoners protected, 346. 
Iroquois, 11, 48, 49. 
Irving, Washington, 333, 485. 
Izard, General, 332. 



Jackson, Andrew, 304, 336, 341, 

342, 350. 
Jackson, Andrew, President, 

oho, obi), obi, oiJ, oib. 

Jackson, Stonewall, 429, 436, 

438, 447. 
JamestoAvn, 19, 88. 
Jav, Jolin, 183, 201, 229, 243, 

272, 27!), 298. 
Jay's treaty, 299, 300. 
Jefferson, Thomas, 203, 254, 

256, 279, 285, 287, 288, 310, 

•312. 
Jefferson, Thomas, President, 

309, 316, 320; and later, 352. 
Johnson, Andrew, President, 

466, 472, 473, 475. 



500 



INDEX. 



Johnson, Isaac, 29. 
Johnson, Reverdy, 479. 
Johnson, Sir William, 133. 
Johnston, General J. E., 429, 

430, 44G, 459, 465, 467. 
Jones, John Paul, 228. 
Joneslsoro' battle, 459. 
Judges, colonial, 157. 



K. 

Kalm, Peter, 144. 

Kane, E. K., 489. 

Kansas, 401, 402, 408. 

Kansas civil war, 403. 

Kearney, General, 388, 389. 

Kearsarge, victory over Ala- 
bama, 461. 

Kensett, J. R., 488. 

Kent, J., 486. 

Kentucky, 196, 251, 286. 

Kentucky resolutions, 312. 

Kilpatrick, General, 460. 

Kini^'s Mountain battle, 233. 

King Philip's War, 98. 

King's Province, 57, 85. 

Knights of the Golden Circle, 
451. 

Knowles, Commodore, 156. 

Knox, Henry, 279. 

Kosciusko, 23. 

Ku-Klux, 476. 



L. 

Laclede, Pierre, 135. 
Lafayette, 213, 217, 224, 231, 

239, 240, 241, 248, 257, 276, 

305, 359. 
Lake Champlain victory, 332. 
Lake Erie victory, 329. 
La Salle, Robert' Cavelier, 120. 
Laurens, Henry, 234, 243. 
Lavalette, Captain, 389. 
Lawrence, Kansas, 402, 403. 
Lederer, John, 142. 
Lee, Arthur, 220. 
Lee, General Charles, 218, 221. 



Lee, General Henry, 289, 326. 
Lee, General R. E., 437, 438,' 

447, 448, 449, 463, 465, 466. 
Lee, Richard H., 183, 184, 202. 
Leif, the Icelander, 3. 
Leisler, Jacob, 89, 153. 
Le Moyne, 119. 
Lenni-Lenape, 49. 
Leverett, John, SG, 100. 
Lewis and Clark expedition, 386, 

488. 
Lexington battle, 189. 
Liberator, 371, 372. 
Libraries, public, 485. 
Ligonia, 55. 
Lincoln, Abraham, 407. 
Lincoln, President, 409, 416, 

417, 427, 431, 440, 441, 442, 

449, 450, 452, 465. 
Lincoln, re-elected, 462. 
Lincoln, assassinated, 466.'' 
Lincoln, General, 226, 227, 230, 

250. 
Line of 37° 30', 351, 352. 
Lingan, General, 327. 
Literature, 142, 485. 
Livingston, Robert R., 203, 316. 
Locke, John, his niodel for Car- 
olina, 69. 
Long Island battle, 209. 
Longfellow, H. W., 487. 
Longstreet, General, 448, 454, 

455. 
Louisburg, 130, 131, 134. 
Louisiana, 116, 120, 125, 135, 

317, 323, 414, 475. 
Louisiana, purchase of, 316. 
Lovejoy, Elijah P., 373. 
Lowell, J. R., 487. 
Loyalists, 197. 
Lundy, Benjamin, 370. 
Lynch, Lieutenant, 489. 
Lyon, Captain and General, 424, 



M. 

Macomb, General, 332. 
Madison, James, 252, 260, 263, 
272, 312. 



INDEX 



501 



Madison, James, President, 309, 
321, 324, 325, 347. 

Maine, 11, 23, 27, oo, 119, 251, 
353, 354. 

Malvern Hill battle, 436. 

Manhattan, 40, 42. 

Manhattans, 106. 

Manufactures, colonial, 155. 

Mariana, 27. 

Marion, Francis, 230. 

Marquette, Jacques, 120. 

Marshall, John, 309, 318. 

Martial law at New Orleans, 
342. 

Martin, Luther, 267, 269, 271. 

Maryland, 35, 36, 58, 91, 96, 
205. 

Mason, George, 270. 

Mason, John, 27, 28. 

Massachusetts, 29, 55, 56, 69, 
72, 83, 85, 127, 154, 166, 108, 
174, 180, 181, 186, 190, 192, 
250, 257, 273, 338, 341, 374. 

Massachusetts missions to pro- 
tect colored seamen, 374. 

Massachusetts Sixth in Balti- 
more, 422. 

Massasoit, 98. 

Mather, Cotton, 77, 146. 

Mather, Increase, 77. 

Mayliew, Jonathan, 158, 167. 

Mayhew, Thomas, 94. 

McClellan, General, 426, 432, 
436, 437, 438, 439, 462. 

LlcClurc, General, 330. 

McDonougli, Captain, 332. 

McDowell, General, 429. 

McLeod, Alexander, 379. 

McPherson, Gene-ral, 459. 

Meade, General, 448, 449, 457, 
466. 

.Mechanicsville battle, 436. 

Mecklenburg declaration, 190, 
200. 

Mercer, General, 210. 

Merrimac, 435. 

Merryman, John, 427. 

Mesilla Valley purchase, 408. 

Metacomet, 98. 



Mexico and the United States, 

385, 392, 393. 
Mexico, city of, taken, 392. 
Mexico, French in, 456, 457, 

479. 
Miantoninioh, 97, 98. 
Michigan, 120, 314, 378. . 
Milan Decree, 319. 
Militia of 1«12, 327, 340. 
Militia of the civil war, 521, 422, 

448. 
Mill Spring battle, 433. 
Ministries, British, 1G5. 
Minnesota, 394, 408. 
Minuit, Peter, 42, 44, 47. 
Mississippi, 122, 314, 323, 351, 

414, 475. 
Mississippi, navigation of the 

river, 238, 256, 293. 
Missouri, 124, 135, 351, 355, 

424. 
Missouri Compromise, 353, 354, 

401, 405. 
JNIobile Bay battle, 461. 
Mobile taken, 467. 
Mobilians, 48, 50. 
Molasses Act, 155. 
Molino del Key battle, 392. 
Monitor, 435, 436. 
Monmouth battle, 222. 
Monroe, James, 302, 316, 325. 
Monroe, James, President, 349, 

250, 354, 359. 
Monroe Doctrine, 357, 358, 479. 
Monterey battle, 387. 
Montgomery Convention, 406. 
Montgomery, General, 196. 
Morgan, General Daniel, 236. 
Mormons, 406. 
Morris, Kobert, 253. 
Morse, S. F. B., 488. 
Morton, Thomas, 34. 
Motley, J. D., 487. 
Moultrie, Colonel. 208, 227. 
Midilenberg, F. A., 296. 
Mumfordsville battle, 439. 
Murfreesboro' battle, 454. 
Murray, William V., 313. 
Mutiny Act, 156. 



502 



INDEX. 



N. • 

Narraganset war, 97. 
Nashville battle, 4G0. 
National bank system, 444. 
Naval Academy, 484. 
Navigation Acts, 86. 
Navv of the revolution, 195, 

217. 
Navy of 1812, 327, 333, 343. 
Navy of the civil war, 426, 435, 

44G, 456, 461, 471. 
Nebraska, 401, 402, 474. 
Neutrality of United States, 295, 

302, 325. 
Neutrality, queen's proclama- 
tion of British, 424. 
Nevada, 462. 
New Albion, 15, 37. 
New Amstel, 109. 
New Amsterdam, 42, 108, 111. 
New England Restraining Act, 

188. 
New England, 23, 55. 
New England, United Colonies 

of, 80. 
New France, 9, 13, 117. 
New Hampshire, 28, 56, 205, 

250. 
New Holland, 40. 
New Jersey, 61, 153, 205, 234, 

235. 
New Mexico, 7, 388, 393, 397. 
New Netherland, 40, 60, 111. 
New Orleans battles, 342. 
New Orleans taken, 434. 
New Somersetshire, 28, 55. 
New Sweden, 47, 108. 
New York, 60, 89, 90, 01, 119, 
' 153, 154, 173, 176, 205, 235, 

272. 
Kvw York, loss of, 208. 
New York, recovery, 244. 
Newburg addresses, 244. 
Newport, loss of, 209, 223. 
Newport, recovery, 228. 
Newspapers, 140. 
Non-consumption, 172. 
Non-importation, 171. 
North Anna liattlo, 457. 



North Point battle, 335. 
North-west Territory, 254, 255, 

285. 
Norton, Andrews, 486. 
Norton, John, 84. 
Nullification, 312, 341, 346, 361, 

365. 

o. 

Observer, 373. 

Oglethorpe, General, 63, 64, 114. 

Ohio, 123, 255, 318. 

Ohio Company, 132. 

Opdycke, General, 460. 

Opequan battle, 458. 

Orders in Council, 319, 321, 325. 

Oregon, 386, 408. 

Organs, first in colonies, 143. 

Osceola, 378. 

Osgood, Samuel, 279. 

Ostend Manifesto, 401. 

Otis, Harrison Gray, 339. 

Otis, James, 158, 166, 168. 



Paine, Thomas, 274. 

Palfrey, J. G., 487. 

Palo Alto battle, 387. 

Paper money, 212, 444. 

Parkman, F., 487. 

Parliament, 85, 155, 163, 164, 

188, 221. 
Parties, colonial, 176. 
Parties, time of tlie Constitution, 

265, 268, 271, 274. 
Parties, tiniG of Washington's 

administration, 283, 294, 300, 

303. 
Patterson, William, 264. 
Patroons, 42, 43, 107. 
Peabody, George, 484. 
Peace Conference, 415. 
Peacock and Nautilus, 343. 
Penn, William, 62, 82, 148. 
Pennsjdvania, 62, 70, 82, 123, 

205, 288. 
Pensacola, 113. 



INDEX 



503 



Pepperell, Sir William, 131. 

Pequot war, 97. 

Percival, J. G., 486. 

Perry, Captain Oliver H., 329. 

Perry, Commodore, 390, 391, 

489. 
Perry ville battle, 439. 
Persecution, 32, 72, 77, 108, 145. 
Personal liberty laws, 405. 
Petersburg battles, 457, 458. 
Petitions of Congress to king, 

1G8, 184, 188, 195, 197, 201. 
Petitions relating to slavery, 373. 
Philadelpliia, loss of, 215. 
Philadelphia, recovery, 221. 
Phips, Sir William, 7G, 127. 
Pickering, Timothy, 313. 
Pierce, Franklin, President, 400. 
Pinckney, Charles C, 263, 269, 

303, 309. 
Pinckney, Thomas, 293. 
Pittsburg Landing battle, 433. 
Plans of Constitution : 

Hamilton's, 264. 

New Jersey, 264. 

Virginia, 263, 265. 
Plowden, Sir Edward, 37. 
Plymouth. 24, 25. 35, 55. 
Polk, James K., President, 383, 

386, 387, 392. 
Ponce de Leon, 5. 
Pontiac, 103. 
Pope, General, 433, 437. 
Population : 

1763, 164. 

1790, 278. 

1797, 482. 

1810, 328. 

1872, 482. 
Port Hudson, 447. 
Port Pepublic battle, 437. 
Port Royal (Annapolis), 10, 129. 
Porter, Admiral, 463. 
Porter, Captain, 333. 
Powers, H., 488. 
Pratt, chief justice of New York, 

157. 
Prescott, Colonel William, 193. 
Prescott, VV. H., 486. 
Press, 139, 140. 



Price, General, 388. 

Princeton bnttle, 210. 

Pring, Martin, 17. 

Prisoners during revolutionary 

war, 242. 
Prisoners in civil war, 467. 
Proprietary governments, 36, 

69. 
Pulaski, Count, 226, 227. 
Puritans, 24, 28, 31, 77, 78, 91» 

145. 

Q. 

Quakers, 75, 78, 108, 145. 
Quakers against slavery, 147, 

283. 
Quartering Act, 167. 
Quebec Act, 181. 
Quincy, Josiah, Jr., 174, 177. 



R. 

Railway, first, 488. 
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 16. 
Randolph, Ednmnd, 263, -270, 

276, 279, 287, 300. 
Randolph, T. J., 370. 
Ilasles, Sebastian. 101. 
Reconstruction, 472, 474. 
Reed, Esther, 233. 
Regulators, 177. 
Religious liberty, 258. 
Repul)licans, early, 283. 
Republican party, 401. 
Repudiation, 377. 
Resaca de la Palma battle, 387. 
Revenue, 280, 311, 327, 337. 
Revolution, American, Periods 

of, 207. 
Reynolds, General, 449. 
Rhode Inland, 33, 57, 78, 81, 85, 

89, 205, 279. 
Rhode Island civil war, 377. 
Richmond battle, 438. 
Richmond taken, 466. 
Riots, time of revolution, 171. 
Riots, lime of civil war, 451. 



504 



INDEX, 



Roanoke Island, 434. 
Robinson, John, 94. 
Rochambeau, Comte de, 232, 

239, 240. 
Roman Catholics, 77, 145. 
Root, Joseph M., 395. 
Rosecrans, General, 439, 454. 
Royal provinces, 70. 
Ruggles, Timothy, 168. 
Ruiz, 7. 

Rush, Richard, 356, 357, 358. 
Russell, Jonathan, 344. 
Rutledge, John, 183, 247, 269. 



s. 

Sabine Cross Roads battle, 456. 

Sackett's Harbor, 330, 332. 

Sacramento Pass battle, 388. 

Sacs and Foxes, 378. 

San Rasqual battle, 389. 

Salem, 28, 29. 

Salem, collision of Americans 

and British, 188. 
Saltonstall, Sir Richard, 74. 
Sanitary Commission, 468. 
Santa Anna, General, 382, 388, 

391, 392. 
Santa Cruz de las Resales battle, 

388. 
Santa Fe, 7. 
Saratoga battles, 214. 
Savannah battles, 226, 228. 
Savannah taken by General 

Sherman, 460. 
Schofield, General, 459, 460, 

465. 
Schools, 138, 484. 
Schuyler, General, 214. 
Science, 142, 487. 
Scott, General Winfield, 331, 

378, 390, 391, 392, 412, 426, 

432. 
Seabury, Samuel, 1)ishop, 259. 
Search, right of, 380. 
Sears, Isaac, 197. 
Secession, 366, 409 et seq. 
Sedgwick, General, 457, 458. 
Sedgwick, Theodore, 315. 



Sedition Act, 311. 

Self-government in the United 
States, 483. 

Seminoles, 378. 

Seminole war, 349. 

Sergeant, John, 104. 

Sevier, Colonel, 233, 251. 

Seward, William H., 397, 407, 
418, 431, 466, 479. 

Shaw, Colonel, 452. 

Shawomet, 79. 

Shays's rebellion, 250. 

Sheridan, General, 457, 458, 465, 
466. 

Sherman, Roger, 203. 

Sherman, General W. T., 433, 
439, 446, 455, 459, 460, 464, 
465. 

Shubrick, Commodore, 389. 

Sigourney, Lydia, 486. 

Slavery : 

Colonial, 20, 52, 67, 147, 151. 
United States, 258, 268, 283. 
District Columbia, 397. 
Louisiana, 317, 318. 
Mexico, 293, 382. 
Missouri, 351, 352, 353, 354, 

355. 
New Mexico, 394. 
Territories, 255, 284, 285, 

314. 
Texas, .382, 383. 
Brought to an end, 427, 428, 
439 et seq. 

Slave question, ,'>69. 

Slave representation, 268. 

Slave trade, 151, 179, 184, 258, 
268, 283, 284, 355, 406. 

Slaves enlisted in civil war, 452, 
463. 

Sloat, Commodore, 389. 

Slocum, General, 460. 

Smith, John, 19, 20, 23. 

Society for Propagating the Gos- 
pel in New England, 95. 

Sons of Liberty, 176. 

South American republics rec- 
ognized, 356. 

South Mountain battle, 438. 

Southampton massacre, 370. 



INDEX, 



505 



Spain and the United States, 229, 

248, 293, 356. 
Sparks, J., 486. 
Specie payments suspended, 

337, 376, 406, 444. 
Spottsylvania battle, 457. 
St. Augustine, 7, 112, 113. 
St. Clair, General, 289. 
Stamp Act, 167, 172. 
Standish, Miles, 26. 
Stanton, Edwin M., 432. 
Star of the West, 413. 
Stark, John, 214. 
State Constitutions, 205. 
State debts, 377. 
States, as governments, 265. 
Steamboat, first, 488. 
Stephens, Alex. H., 410, 415, 

423. 
Steuben, Baron, 238. 
Stockton, Commodore, 389. 
Stone River battle, 439. 
Stony Point, 228. 
Story, J., 486. 
Story, W. W., 488. 
Stoughton, Israel, 32. 
Stoughton, William, 76. 
Strong, General, 452. 
Stuart, G., 487. 
Stuyvesant, Peter, 108, 109, 

110. 
Sugar Act, 166. 
Sumner, Charles, 404. 
Sumter, Thomas, 230. 
Surplus revenue, 376. 



T. 

Tallmadge, James W., 351. 
Taney, R. B., 376. 
Tariff, 280, 349, 362, 363, 368. 
Tariff Compromise, 368. 
Taxation, 280, 311, 337, 349. 
Taxation of colonies, 165, 166, 
^ 183. 

Taylor, John W., 351. 
Taylor, Zachary, 385, 386, 387. 
Taylor, Zachary, President, 395, 
396, 397. 

43 



Tea Act, 178. 
Tea destroyed, 178. 
Tecumseh, 322, 329. 
Telegraph, first, 488. 
Telegraphic messages seized, 

426. 
Tennessee, 185, 251, 286, 423. 
Tennessee, East, 426, 454, 455. 
Territory of Orleans, 317. 
Territory south of the Ohio, 285, 

286. 
Terry, General, 464. 
Texas, 121, 381. 

Independence, 381, 382. 

Annexation, 382, 383, 394. 

Afterwards, 397, 414, 475. 
Thacher, George, 314. 
Thacher, Oxenbridge, 158, 167. 
Thames battle, 329. 
Thirteenth Amendment, 462. 
Thomas, General George H., 

433, 439, 454, 455, 459, 460. 
Thomas, Jesse B., 353. 
Ticknor, G., 486. 
Ticonderoga, 191. 
Timby, T. R., 435. 
Tohopeka battle, 336. 
Tompkins, Daniel D., 349. 
Topeka Constitution, 403. 
Towns, 70. 
Transylvania, 196. 
Treason, act for trial of, 175. 
Treaties : 

Aix-la-Chapelle, 115, 131, 
152. 

Breda, 111. 

Commerce, 292. 

France, 220. 

Ghent, 345. 

Guadalupe Hidalgo, 393, 
394. 

Japan, 489. 

Jay's, 299. 

Paris, 115, 135, 160. 

Paris and Versailles, 242, 
243. 

Quintuple, 380. 

Ryswick, 128. 

Seville, 114. 

Spain, 293, 351. 



50G 



INDEX. 



Treaties : 

Utrecht, 114, 123, 125, 129, 
132. 

Washington, (1842,) 380. 

Washington, (1871,) 480. 
Trent affiiir, 430, 431. 
Trenton battle, 210. 
Trist, N. P., 393. 
Trumbull, John, 274. 
Tucker, Dean, his plan of sep- 
aration, 188. 
Tufts, John, 144. 
Tuscaroras, 101. 
Twiggs's treason, 414. 
Tyler, John, President, 380. 

u. 

Uncas, 97, 99. 

Union of colonies, 148. 

United Provinces, 193. 

United States, 204. 

United States and Macedonian, 

333. 
Upsall, Nicholas, 75. 
Upshur, A. P., 383. 
Utah, 397, 406. 

V. 

Valley Forge, 219. 

Van Buren, Martin, President, 
377, 383. 

Van der Donck, Adrian, 107. 

Van Rensselaer, General, 330. 

Vera Cruz taken, 390. 

Vermont, 57, 251, 286. 

Verrazzano, 9, 40. 

Vespucci, Amerigo, 4. 

Vicksburg, 439, 445, 446, 447. 

Vinland, 3. 

Virginia, 16, 19, 58, 91, 96, 132, 
167, 201, 205, 260, 272, 281, 
301, 367, 370, 422, 423, 475. 

Virginia, patent of, 18. 

Virginia resolutions, 312. 

Virginia, West, 425, 426. 

Vixen and Southampton, 333. 

Vizcaino, 7. 



w. 

Wadsworth, Captain, 90. 
WadsM^orth, General, 458. 
Wallace, General Lewis, 438. 
Walloons, 42. 
Warner, Seth, 191. 
Warren, Joseph, 190, 193. 
Warren, General G. K., 457. 
Wars : 

Dutch, 43, 44, 110, 111. 
French, 11, 113, 114, 115, 

126. 
King William's, 126. 
Queen Anne's, 128. 
King George's, 130. 
Final, 132. 
Indian, with English, 87, 

96-104, 127, 12H, 129. 
With Dutch, 106, 107. 
With French, 125, 127, 129. 
With Spanish, 113, 114. 
Of the revolution, 186 etseq. 
United States with Algiers, 

346. 
With Florida, 350. 
With France, 310. 
With Great Britain, 325- 

345. 
With Indians, 289, 322, 336, 

349, 378, 394. 
With Mexico, 385-393. 
Civil, 420 et seq. 
Warwick, Earl of, 80. 
Washington, before the revolu- 
tion, 132, 134, 167, 175, 180, 
182, 183, 184. 
Washington, during the revolu- 
tion, 190, 192, 193, 194, 198, 
201, 207, 210, 212, 216, 222, 
225, 235, 238, 244, 245, 24(), 
247. 
AVashington, after the revolu- 
tion, 256, 257, 262, 274. 
Washington, President, and la- 
ter, 276-305, 310, 315. 
Washington, the capital, 281. 
Washington, capture of, 335. 
Wasp and Frolic, 333. 



INDEX 



507 



Wasp and Poictiers, 333. 

Wasp and Avon, 384. 

Wayne, General, 228, 290. 

Webster, Daniel, 358, 359, 363, 
3G4, 367, 368, 376, 380, 381, 
397, 486. 

Wesley, Charles and John, 144. 

West, Benjamin, 144. 

West Indies, 4, 5. 

West Point, 228, 232. 

West Point Academy, 484. 

Weymout'.i, George, 17. 

Whiskey insurrection, 288. 

White Oak Swamp battle, 436. 

White Plains battle, 209. 

Whiteneld, George, 144. 

Whitney, Eli, 488. 

Whittier, J. G., 372, 487. 

Wickes's crnise, 217. 

Wilderness battle, 457. 

Wilkes, Captain, 431, 489. 

Wilkes, CaptJiin, exploring ex- 
pedition, 489. 

Wilkinson, General, 330, 331. 

Williams, Roger, 32, 33, 57, 78, 
97. 

Williamsburg battle, 436. 

Wilmot proviso, 392. 

Wilson, James, 270. 



Wilson's Creek battle, 425. 
Winslow, Captain John, 461 
Winslow, Edward, 85. 
Winthro]), Jolm, 29, 73. 
Winthrop, John, Jr., 33, 57, 111. 
Winthro]), .John, Professor, 143. 
Wirt, William, 374. 
Wisconsin, 120, 378, 394. 
Witches, 76. 
AVolcott, Oliver, 313. 
Wolfe, General, 135. 
Woolman, John, 148. 
Worden, Lieutenant, 435, 436. 
AVren, Thomas, 243. 
W^rits of Assistance, 157. 
W'yoming, 225, 251. 



Y. 

Yamassees, 102. 
Yeardley, Sir George, 21. 
York, burning of, 330. 
Yorktown, siege and surrender, 
239. 

z. 

Zenger, John Peter, 141. 






if 



